ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers continued to show that a little adversity doesn’t slow them down.

On the same day they found out team leader Michael Young would be sidelined for at least two weeks, they beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4.

The victory moved the Rangers within 3 1/2 games of the Los Angeles Angels in the American League West and within 2 1/2 games of the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race.

It’s the closest the Rangers have been in the West since Aug. 9.

"That’s just the type of team we have," said Marlon Byrd, who came on in the fifth inning after Josh Hamilton left with a sore lower back. "In the past couple of years, we’ve had teams that don’t give up and battle every game. But the next day we didn’t always bounce back. This team does not worry about what happens the day before."

The big hit for the Rangers came from one of the players affected by Young’s absence.

Elvis Andrus, who moved to Young’s No. 2 spot in the batting order, put the Rangers ahead 4-3 with a two-run homer off Scott Richmond in the fifth inning.

"He does what you ask him to do," manager Ron Washington said of Andrus. "That home run he hit was big. That was the biggest hit of the night because it put us ahead. We got key hits from guys. It seems like when adversity hits this team, they play their best."

Rookie Tommy Hunter (7-3) won his seventh game, allowing four runs in seven innings. He allowed two of those runs in the first, but kept the Rangers in the game long enough for the offense to come back.

The Rangers got some insurance when Nelson Cruz became the 16th player in franchise history to hit 30 homers in a season, as his leadoff homer in the sixth stretched the lead to 5-3. Cruz finished with three of Texas’ 10 hits.

Frank Francisco got the final two outs for his third save in two days.