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Rougned Odor of the Texas Rangers turns a double play as Justin Smoak #14 of the Toronto Blue Jays slides into second base on May 3, 2016 at Rogers Centre.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

It is a common refrain from manager John Gibbons these days as he pores over his batting lineup and wonders where the once mighty Toronto Blue Jays' offence scurried off to.

"Not getting many hits, but he will," Gibbons said, sounding more hopeful than optimistic when discussing the latest of his offensive projects, catcher Russell Martin, prior to Tuesday night's game against the Texas Rangers at Rogers Centre.

With the way things have been going – make that not going – for some of Toronto's big bats this season, Gibbons could just as easily have been referring to any number of his players.

Are you listening, Troy Tulowitzki, the defensive guru at shortstop who has been a huge disappointment offensively, hitting a miserly .165 heading into Tuesday's contest?

And hello Edwin Encarnacion, now might be a good time to kick-start that .235 batting average, which is some 30 points under your career mark. And one home run in your last 16 games is just not going to cut it in this, your walk year.

But Gibbons' attention on this day was Martin, whose .141 batting average is the lowest among the Blue Jays' rank and file this season through the first 27 games.

And his 31 strikeouts in 71 plate appearances heading into the Rangers contest are the most among all full-time players in Major League Baseball.

A single in the seventh inning in Friday's game against Tampa Bay ended a dreary stretch of nine consecutive strikeouts for Martin, a Blue Jays record.

Sore neck or not, these are worrisome stats for a former all-star who came to the club with much fanfare prior to the 2015 season after signing a 5-year, $82-million (U.S.) deal, the largest free-agent contract the franchise has ever doled out.

"He's a little over aggressive right now," Gibbons said of his 33-year-old catcher. "But a lot of time the tendency is to hit your way out of it. That's what most guys do. But I think his neck's feeling better so that's going to help him."

Martin got off the schneid – at least a little bit – against the Rangers, collecting his first hit in four games, a single in the fifth inning.

And the Blue Jays would eventually follow suit with some late-game heroics from an unlikely figure in Justin Smoak, their unassuming first baseman.

Smoak rifled two home runs late in the game – including the walk-off winner in the bottom of the tenth inning off Texas reliever Phil Klein, a two-run shot that provided the Blue Jays with an unexpected 3-1 triumph.

It was Smoak who swatted his first home run of the year in the bottom of the ninth that tied the game at 1-1.

It was a game where the Rangers would take a 1-0 lead in the first inning on the strength of a Rougned Odor leadoff home run off Toronto starter Marco Estrada.

It was about the only mistake Estrada would make in his outing, allowing just two hits over six innings of work to allow his team a fighting chance.

The Rangers would nurse that lead into the bottom of the ninth when Smoak first went to work.

The win for the Blue Jays (13-15) evened the four-game set against the Rangers (15-12) at 1-1 and snapped a four-game home losing streak.

With the offence scuffling, the Blue Jays more than ever need to pay attention to the details in order to be successful.

That has not been the case of late where the Blue Jays have repeatedly failed in their efforts to advance baserunners on those infrequent occasions they do get on.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the first two Toronto runners on board, Darwin Barney was asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position.

As has been the case in recent outings games for Toronto Barney could not get the job done, falling behind 0-2.

Although Barney dug in after that and worked an epic 15-pitch at bat against Texas reliever Tony Barnette before he struck out looking, the damage was done.

Michael Saunders would follow with a strikeout and Josh Donaldson lined out to left and Toronto wasted another good opportunity to at least tie the score.

With lefty starter Martin Perez starting for the Rangers, Barney, who hits from the right side, was inserted into the starting lineup at second base for only the sixth time this season, in place of Ryan Goins.

With the Toronto Raptors playing their opening playoff game of the second round up the street against the Miami Heat, a crowd of 24,437 attended the baseball game, the Blue Jays second lowest in 14 home dates this year.

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