Adam Lind hit a grand slam among his two home runs and had a career-high eight RBIs, powering Toronto to a big early lead before the Blue Jays held on for an 18-10 victory over the slipping Texas Rangers on Monday night.
Rod Barajas also homered twice, and Lind hit a solo homer and a three-run double in Toronto's seven-run ninth that finally put the game out of reach after Texas had rallied from an 11-run deficit to make it 11-10. Lind's eight RBIs matched the best in the majors this season.
The Rangers (72-58), who came up short of their largest comeback victory in team history, wrapped up a losing August and dropped four games behind idle Boston in the AL wild-card race.
Toronto led 5-0 after Barajas capped the first-inning outburst with a three-run homer. Lind's first career slam made it 10-0 with no outs in the fourth and chased Rangers rookie left-hander Derek Holland (7-9).
Barajas added a sacrifice fly in the third, then led off the fifth with a 438-foot blast into the Blue Jays bullpen in left-center field that made it 11-0 on way to a season-high total in runs.
Texas pulled to 11-10 in the seventh on Chris Davis' sacrifice fly to deep center, where Vernon Wells made a leaping catch on the warning track to keep another runner at first base.
The Rangers stranded two runners in the sixth when Marlon Byrd had an inning-ending deep flyball to center after RBI singles by Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton.
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Brett Cecil (6-3) barely made it through the five innings needed for the victory. After four scoreless innings, Toronto's rookie left-hander gave up seven runs and took a Hamilton liner off his left hip before finally getting the final out of the fifth.
Kinsler had a two-run triple before Nelson Cruz hit a three-run homer to left that made it 11-7. In between, Michael Young had a sacrifice fly and Hamilton got an infield single with the hard shot off Cecil.
Manager Cito Gaston and a trainer went to check on Cecil, who got to stay in and struggle through the rest of the inning. David Murphy, the 10th batter in the frame, struck out for the final out.
Young extended his majors-best hitting streak to 18 games overall with a single in the fourth, matching a Rangers record with a hit in his 23rd consecutive home game.
Holland lost at home for the first time since June 27, having gone 4-0 his last five starts at Rangers Ballpark.
Toronto led for good after Marco Scutaro had a leadoff single and Aaron Hill an RBI double within the first three pitches of the game. Wells had a triple in the third before scoring on Barajas' sac fly, then two singles and a hit batsman loaded the bases for Lind in the fourth.
The 16 homers by Barajas, who has six of them his last 10 games, are his most since a career-best 21 in 2005 while playing for the Rangers.
NOTES: The only other player in the majors with eight RBIs this season was Washington's Josh Willingham at Milwaukee on July 27. The last AL player with at least eight RBIs was Garret Anderson of the Los Angeles Angels two years ago. ... The largest deficit Texas has overcome to win was 10 runs. The Rangers trailed Detroit 14-4 on May 8, 2004, before rallying to win 16-15. ... Texas was 14-15 in August. ... It was Barajas' seventh career multihomer game. His only other one this season was also against the Rangers, in Toronto on April 22. Lind had his second multihomer game, both this season in Arlington. The other was June 8. ... Young matched Ivan Rodriguez's 23-game home hitting streak set in 1995.
