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Gallardo picks up 100th career victory

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers had extra reason to celebrate a 4-1 victory over the Blue Jays on Thursday afternoon in the clubhouse afterwards.

The Rangers wanted to salute starter Yovani Gallardo, who pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in the August heat and earned his 100th career victory.

"It just shows a lot of the hard work through the year," Gallardo said. "It's definitely exciting. Hopefully I'm ready to go on and reach the next goal."

Gallardo is the fourth pitcher born in Mexico to reach 100 victories. The others are Fernando Valenzuela with 173, Esteban Loaiza with 126 and Ismael Valdez with 104. Gallardo has won three consecutive starts and finished August 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA.

"Yovani maneuvered his way around their lineup, never gave in. He was in control of the at-bats," manager Jeff Banister said. "When we took him out, again it was a hot day, the game situation, he was right at 100 pitches, turned it over to the bullpen. We really feel like that equation has been successful lately, so we wanted to turn it over to guys who have done a really good job.

"But hats off to Yovani. It was really good to see his teammates celebrate with him. His accomplishment is not only an individual accomplishment but a team accomplishment."

Gallardo allowed three hits and three walks, and struck out two. Only three other starters have at least that many -- Zack Greinke (10), Dallas Keuchel (eight) and Jacob DeGroms (eight).

Gallardo, who has a 14 1/3 scoreless-innings streak going, is 7-2 with a 1.02 ERA in 13 starts following a Rangers loss this season.

This outing came against a team that had been averaging 5.77 runs per game with 58 home runs and a .461 slugging percentage in their last 35 games. This was the first scoreless outing by a starter against Toronto since Danny Duffy of the Royals on July 10.

"I was just being aggressive in the zone and making guys swing the bat," Gallardo said. "I think after that, I was able to move the ball in and out on hitters. That's big against a club like that."

T.R. Sullivan is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Postcards from Elysian Fields, follow him on Twitter @Sullivan_Ranger and listen to his podcast.
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