The Texas Rangers first baseman highlighted a six-run eighth inning with a grand slam off reliever Vinny Chulk to lead his team to a come-from-behind 7-5 win at Ameriquest Field in Arlington on Sunday night.
Teixeira belted a first-pitch fastball over the right-centre field fence for his fourth home run in as many games. The 26-year-old slugger drove in nine runs in Texas' three-game sweep of the Jays and leads the majors with nine homers in July.
"You never give up when you have nine innings to play," said Teixeira. "Once I hit it I knew it was gone. [Blue Jays starter Miguel] Batista was carving us up but to be able to come back in a game like that is a lot of fun."
Mark Teixeira, left, is congratulated by Laynce Nix, centre, and Michael Young following an eighth-inning grand slam on Sunday. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
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- Blue Jays-Rangers boxscore
Texas (52-37), which has 25 comeback victories this season, extended its win streak to four games.
Toronto (39-52) seemed well on its way to halting a five-game losing streak, building a 5-0 lead in the top of the seventh inning behind a strong effort from Batista.
The right-hander allowed two hits through seven innings, a Brad Fullmer solo home run his only mistake.
But Batista lost his command in the eighth. The Rangers cut Toronto's lead to 5-2 when Gary Matthews Jr. walked, went to third on Rod Barajas' double and scored on Laynce Nix's grounder. Nix was safe at first on Carlos Delgado's fielding error. Michael Young made it 5-3 with an RBI double to chase Batista.
"I had good stuff but I made two stupid mistakes that cost us the game - the walk to Matthews and the double to Barajas," Batista said. "You take away those mistakes and we should be the guys celebrating now."
Chulk got Hank Blalock to pop out and Alfonso Soriano to fly out before walking Brad Fullmer to load the bases for Teixeira.
Doug Brocail (1-0) earned the win - his first since July 23, 2000, for Detroit - striking out three Blue Jays over 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Kenny Rogers.
Rangers closer Francisco Cordero tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 28th save in 30 chances.
Batista, who had four wins in his previous five starts, allowed five runs and four hits over seven-plus innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Rogers allowed five runs and 12 hits over 6 2/3 innings. Rogers, who slightly strained his right hamstring almost two weeks ago, gave up eight runs and nine hits in 1 2-3 innings to Boston in his previous start on July 10.
Rogers was chosen for the American League all-star team but didn't pitch in the game, then the Rangers gave him two extra days off after the break.
The extra rest didn't seem to help Rogers as Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the second on Eric Hinske's RBI double and Chris Woodward's run-scoring single.
The Blue Jays went ahead 3-0 in the fourth inning on consecutive doubles by Gregg Zaun and Alex Rios, then stretched their advantage to 4-0 in the fifth on Delgado's RBI single.
Vernon Wells added an RBI single in the seventh to make it 5-0 before Fullmer ended Batista's bid for his fourth career shutout.
Rios had a career-high four hits for Toronto.
Asked where he ranked Sunday night's defeat in this season full of disappointments, Toronto manager Carlos Tosca said, "I think it's pretty near the top of the list. We controlled the game entirely for seven innings and then lost."
Toronto opens a two-game series in Oakland (50-40) Monday night
with files from Associated Press
