ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Ryan Drese pitched seven strong innings,

Kevin Mench homered twice and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto

Blue Jays 10-3 Friday night.

Drese (12-8) allowed one run and six hits, struck out seven and

walked one. He lost a bid for his first shutout when he allowed

Carlos Delgado's solo homer in the seventh, but picked up his

eighth win in 11 decisions.

Mench has homered in his last three games and has four in 10

at-bats. He extended his career-high home run total to 23.

Mench and Mark Teixeira homered in a six-run fourth inning for

the Rangers, who had lost nine of their previous 11. Michael Young

had four hits, and Rod Barajas and Mench each added three hits for

Texas, which took advantage of the Blue Jays club record-tying four

wild pitches.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the first against Miguel Batista

(10-11) with the help of mistakes by two of the three September

callups in the Toronto lineup.

Hank Blalock walked and scored on Young's double. Young went to

third when rookie shortstop Ross Adams' relay throw to the plate

was wild for an error. Young scored when Batista threw a wild pitch

past rookie catcher Guillermo Quiroz, who was unable to block the

ball.

Mench's homer in the second made it 3-0. In the fourth, when the

Rangers had six straight hits to tie their season high, Mench

homered to make it 4-0.

Later in the fourth, Barajas scored from third on Batista's

third wild pitch of the game. Blalock added an RBI double and Young

had a run-scoring single to make it 7-0.

That chased Batista, and Teixeira greeted reliever Bob File with

a two-run homer to make it 9-0.

Batista allowed eight runs and 10 hits over 3 1-3 innings.

Blalock's RBI single in the fifth gave Texas a 10-0 lead. Dave

Berg's RBI groudout in the eighth got the Blue Jays to 10-2.Game notes
Young had his 61st multihit game of the season, second in

the AL behind Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, who began the night with 71.

... Delgado has 18 homers at Ameriquest Field, his most in any road

ballpark and the most by any Rangers opponent. ... Umpire Mike

Everitt was scheduled to be behind the plate, but Everett left the

park before the game because his wife was in labor. Larry Young

shifted from first base to call balls and strikes in a three-man

crew. ... With the win, the Rangers were assured of finishing at

least third in the AL West after four straight last-place finishes.