Colon ties a record for wins in Rangers victory

RANGERS 13, WHITE SOX 4

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bartolo Colon overcame a sluggish start to earn his 245th major league victory and match Dennis Martinez for the most by a pitcher from Latin America when the Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox 13-4 on Saturday night.

Joey Gallo and Ryan Rua homered for the Rangers, who won for the 11th time in 13 games and clinched their fifth consecutive series. Robinson Chirinos hit a three-run double in the fourth inning that put Texas ahead to stay.

Colon, 45, (5-5) was done after Matt Davidson led off the sixth with a home run to center field that pulled the White Sox to 5-3.

Colon already had the most victories by a pitcher born in the Dominican Republic, having surpassed Hall of Famer Juan Marichal for that distinction with his 244th victory at Kansas City on June 18, six days before a loss at Minnesota. Colon won in his first start at home since June 6 to match Martinez, who is from Nicaragua.

White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon (13) allowed five runs in 51/ innings.

Shin-Soo Choo, who has a major league-best on-base streak of 41 games, didn’t play for Texas because of right quad soreness. Choo said he has dealt with the issue for at least 10 days and it bothered him recently.

Affectionately nicknamed Big Sexy, the portly Colon retired 10 of 11 batters before Davidson went deep. Colon even got over to cover first base in time to get speedy Leury Garcia, who dove headfirst as the pitcher took a toss from Gallo to start the third. Colon had a grin on his face walking back to the mound.

Chicago managed to score only twice despite seven baserunners in the first two innings, when Colon allowed