Texas Rangers 11, Kansas City Royals 5

by PegNews wire

The Texas Rangers once again beat baseball's equivalent of the Washington Generals Wednesday night, defeating the Royals 11-5 in Kansas City. The win gets the Rangers over the .500 hump at 34-33 on the season.

Down 5-1 entering the seventh, the Rangers were once again able to come from behind late with some big innings. In the top of the seventh, Texas poured seven runs, including a grand slam, on the hapless Royals to send them to their 19th loss in their last 23 games. The Rangers later added three more insurance runs in the top of the ninth to close it out.

Outfielder David Murphy got the grand slam, the first of his career, which provided the game-deciding runs. Murphy later added a solo shot in the ninth for his first multi-HR game of his young career. Murphy leads all American League rookies in RBIs and hits, and finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBI.

Several other Rangers had excellent days. Marlon Byrd continues to impress, going 3-for-3 with two walks and three runs scored, while Josh Hamilton went 3-for-6 with a run and an RBI, his majors-leading 71st. Ian Kinsler also had three hits for the Rangers, scoring a run and driving in two more.

Unfortunately, Michael Young went 0-for-5 with a walk to end his hitting streak at 23 games, longest in the majors this season. Young did manage to score a run off Murphy's grand slam in the seventh.

Rangers starter Vicente Padilla pitched well enough to win, lasting six innings, but gave up five runs and seven hits. Padilla did manage to improve his record to 8-3 on the season with a 3.89 ERA.

Posted by Todd M.