In a matchup of struggling offenses, the Texas Rangers broke out at the plate Friday to build some needed confidence and potential momentum.
Following one of their most dominant performances of the season, the Rangers will try to hand the visiting Kansas City Royals a fifth straight defeat when the teams meet Saturday afternoon at Arlington, Texas.
Texas had totaled 23 runs while losing six of its previous seven contests before rolling to a 9-1 victory over Kansas City in Friday’s series opener. Five games under .500, the Rangers haven’t won two games in a row since May 19-20.
“I think that with a good stretch of baseball, we could put ourselves in a very good position,” Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young told the team’s official website.
While MacKenzie Gore allowed four hits over 6 1/3 scoreless innings Friday, Ezequiel Duran’s two-run single highlighted a four-run first inning that essentially put the game away.
Brandon Nimmo and Nicky Lopez each hit a two-run homer, and Joc Pederson also went deep for the Rangers, who posted 10 hits to match their total from losing the previous two games.
“Keep fighting,” Duran told the Rangers Sports Network. “Try to win the game.”
Duran, stepping in at shortstop while star Corey Seager remains out with a lower-back injury, is 6-for-14 with four RBIs in the last four games. Pederson, meanwhile, has hit four of his seven home runs this season in the last four contests.
Pederson is just 2-for-19 in his career against Saturday’s scheduled Kansas City starter, right-hander Seth Lugo (2-4, 3.74 ERA), but one of those hits was a home run.
Lugo, who is 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA in three career appearances vs. Texas, was strong in his only two previous starts against Rangers. In 12 1/3 combined innings in those outings last season, the veteran allowed three runs and six hits while striking out 14.
Now, Lugo will eye a third straight quality start after he yielded three runs over 6 1/3 innings in an 8-6 victory against Seattle on Sunday to earn his first winning decision since his season debut.
However, if Lugo is to have a chance at another win, his Royals teammates must find a way to score.
A loser in 14 of its last 17 games, Kansas City has only five runs during its four-game skid. It also hasn’t helped that the Royals have allowed 31 runs and 42 hits, including 10 homers, in the last three games.
“There’s frustration,” Royals star Salvador Perez told the club’s official website. “We need to prove that we’re better. We need to figure it out. We’ve got to win some games.”
Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia had two hits Friday and is 10-for-28 in the last seven games. However, teammate and Dallas-area native Bobby Witt Jr. is 0-for-8 in the last two games and is batting .191 over the last 12.
The Royals will get their first look at scheduled Rangers starter Kumar Rocker (2-5, 3.96 ERA) on Saturday.
After throwing 12 2/3 scoreless innings in his previous two outings, the right-hander gave up four runs, four hits and three walks in five innings of Monday’s 9-0 loss to Houston.
–Field Level Media
