TORONTO _ Just as they did while winning 10 consecutive games in mid-May, the Texas Rangers are now finding different ways to lose from night to night.
A decent outing by starter Yu Darvish on Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre was undone by one slider left up over the middle to Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, who ripped it into the left-field stands for a three-run homer in the fifth inning.
That was all the Jays needed for the 3-1 win and to send the Rangers to their fifth straight loss.
The Rangers, who had climbed back into second place in the American League West with their win streak, including nine at home, are now in third place, two games under .500.
The Rangers offense, which had seemingly snapped out of a season-long funk of late, couldn't muster much of an attack against Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada.
Shin-Soo Choo's leadoff homer on the first pitch of the game was the Rangers' only run. Estrada allowed four hits and a walk in six innings and struck out eight.
Texas had just six hits total and struck out 12 times, making it 40 strikeouts combined over the past three games.
In the first two games in Toronto, the Rangers are 2 for 17 with runners in scoring position, including 0 for 2 on Saturday.
The Rangers didn't have enough base runners Saturday to mount much of a threat. Besides Choo's homer, only three Rangers got past first base. Two of them came in the fourth when Rougned Odor singled and moved to third on Ryan Rua's double. But Joey Gallo took strike 3 to end the inning.
"We'd like to play better baseball," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "The offense had shown up for us for a while and then kind of has gone away from us. The starting pitching was really good for us for a stretch and then there was a stretch where we were challenged. We've been challenged in a lot of areas, we've got to put some things together."
That should start with fewer strikeouts. Rangers hitters have 430 strikeouts, second most in the American League behind the Tampa Bay Rays (538).
"That's a guy who really has a good feel how to use (the changeup) behind in the count," Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos said of Estrada. "It's slow and it's hard to stay back and hit it good.
"One thing we can get better at is hitting with two strikes. This is a team that has really good hitters who can go the other way, and I think we have to start doing that."
Before Baustista's homer, Darvish walked No. 9 hitter Luke Maile with one out and nobody on. Darvish struggled locating his fastball against Maile and after getting Kevin Pillar to fly out for the second out, Devon Travis singled on a flat slider to set up the three-run homer.
"I think that walk was the key to the inning," Chirinos said. "We were trying to get ahead with the fastball and he lost his release point to that guy and it gave them a chance for Bautista to hit with two guys on."
Bautista jumped on the slider that stayed out over the middle of the plate for the decisive blow.
"He missed his spot, that's it," Chirinos said. "If he makes his pitches down and away he's going to get those guys out.
"We can't judge Yu by two pitches. I think he pitched really good today and gave us a chance to win. We just can't put it together on the offensive side."
