ARLINGTON, Texas - Corey Seager's double to right did not start the inning. It finished the first statement.
With the Texas Rangers already up three in the second Friday night at Globe Life Field, Seager drove Evan Carter home with a two-out double off Dylan Cease, stretching the lead to 4-0, per ESPN's box.
Texas beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1, reached .500 for a majors-leading 23rd time, and pulled even with Houston atop the American League West after Atlanta beat the Astros 6-2, the Associated Press reported.
Seager finished 1-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, and a stolen base. The double was the swing that turned a messy Toronto inning into a settled cushion - the kind of September contact that travels farther than the exit velocity suggests.
How the second got loud
The inning opened with traffic, not fireworks. Wyatt Langford and Jake Burger reached. Evan Carter's bases-loaded grounder scored Langford, and Burger came home when shortstop Ernie Clement's throw trying to force a runner at third bounced wide into foul territory, the AP wrote. Ezequiel Duran's sacrifice fly made it 3-0. Then Seager doubled Carter home.
Cease (11-6) walked a season-high six among his first 15 batters and was replaced with two outs in the third after 38 balls and 36 strikes. Five of Texas' seven runs were unearned; Toronto walked 10 and committed three throwing errors, two by third baseman Kazuma Okamoto.
Seager also stole second off Cease and catcher Alejandro Kirk - one more reminder that the Blue Jays never locked down the running game.
Race board after a shared first place
Texas improved to 77-77 and sits one game behind the Chicago White Sox for the third AL wild card, though Chicago holds the tiebreaker, the AP noted. Toronto fell to 76-78 and is two games back in the wild-card race.
The Rangers would still need to win the West outright to finish ahead of Houston on a tie, but Friday erased the Astros' cushion for a night.
