ARLINGTON, Texas _ He got by with a little help from his friends.
Though Bartolo Colon did not have great command Saturday, his offense, his bullpen and his own will helped him pick up a landmark victory in the 13-4 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Colon fell behind by two runs early and did not retire a batter in the sixth inning, but still came away with career win No. 245 to tie Nicaragua's Dennis Martinez for the most ever victories by a Latin American-born pitcher.
As the weather started to heat up in June, Colon, 45, has struggled to keep up. He finishes the month with a 7.36 ERA and an average of just 42/3 innings per outing. On Saturday, it was more of the same.
He needed a great play by Elvis Andrus, who threw home from deep in the hole at short to prevent a first-inning run from scoring. Two runs scored in the second when Colon allowed a pair of doubles.
But the offense scored four runs over the next two innings to give him a lead. As soon as Colon gave up a leadoff homer to Matt Davidson in the sixth, cutting the lead to one run, manager Jeff Banister went to his bullpen to try to preserve the win.
The White Sox threw 65 pitches in the Rangers' seven-run eighth inning. It was the second consecutive night the Rangers had a seven-run inning, their highest run output for a single inning this season.
The Rangers used four relievers _ Jesse Chavez, Jake Diekman, Jose Leclerc and Chris Martin over the final four innings.
