Danny Duffy scattered four hits while pitching into the seventh inning, the Royals scratched out three runs off the Rangers’ Yu Darvish, and Kansas City beat Texas 3-1 on Friday night to open their three-game series.
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Darvish struck out 11 Royals, but gave up single runs in each of the first three innings, including a Cheslor Cuthbert home run.
Darvish (2-2) almost matched Duffy in his third start off the disabled list. “A quality start, a quality starter, he’s been doing that all year long”.
“Earlier in the game, it felt a little different”.
Nomar Mazara was 2-for-3 for Texas, who had just two runners in scoring position the entire evening, going 0-for-2, which was maybe more a function of another strong start from KC’s Danny Duffy (6-1), who allowed one run, four hits, two walks and struck out four over 6.2 innings of work. “He was really tough on us”, Banister said. “I know he’s looking down on us now”. “He lost his life a while ago, about a week ago and my heart goes to the Shipleys, they’re wonderful people and I dedicate my performance tonight to Liam, that’s for sure”.
In Oakland, Coco Crisp singled home the winning run in the 13th for his eighth career game-ending RBI.
But Banister also sees the bigger picture and knows that this latest outing from Darvish, who – along with Cole Hamels (10-2), who will start on Saturday evening against Yordano Ventura (6-7) – is expected to anchor the Texas rotation until reinforcements hopefully arrive at or prior to the August 1 Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline or later in August, when fellow starters Derek Holland (shoulder) and Colby Lewis (lat muscle) are both expected to return from long stays on the DL, is a stepping stone.
“I just want to say one thing, not to veer away from your question, but my effort tonight was for my buddy Liam”, Duffy said. The 25-year-old Dominican, who hasn’t won since blanking the Tigers for 6 1/3 frames on June 17, went 0-3 with an 8.40 ERA in his previous three turns.
Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost (R) presents President Barack Obama an honorary jersey at a ceremony honoring the world series champion Royals in the East Room at the White House.
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Still, it wasn’t good enough to keep the AL West-leading Rangers from losing for the eighth time in nine games. The Rangers have allowed 18 runs in their last three games and six or more runs in four of their last seven games.
