Mitch Moreland’s second home run of the game broke a tie in the eighth inning and Cole Hamels earned his 12th win of the season as the Royals lost to the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night. Volquez allowed one run in his six innings in his last start, which also came against Texas.
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Rougned Odor looks to rough up Kansas City pitching for the third consecutive game when his Texas Rangers host the Royals on Saturday in the third contest of their four-game set.
Moreland’s 17th home run of the season came against Brooks Pounders (1-1), who got the first two outs of the ninth before Moreland’s fourth home run in his last five games. “But reality is this month has not been our best month so finishing on a strong note and winning baseball games is a positive”. After that, I pitched a couple of good innings, I kept the ball on the ground. “We have to show up ready to go tomorrow”. “I think it lit a fire in our bellies a little bit more”. Playing time has been sporadic for Moreland this year and is likely to remain that way.
TWINS 6, ORIOLES 2 Rookie Max Kepler continued his midseason surge with a game-tying home run among two hits and two RBIs as the Minnesota Twins rallied to beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-2 on Thursday night.
Rangers: Right-hander Lucas Harrell makes his Rangers debut, four days after being acquired from Atlanta along with reliever Dario Alvarez for a minor league infielder. I don’t try to hit homers, but if I hit it I feel good. Volquez is 0-3 in five career starts against the Rangers, one of four teams he’s never beaten in his career.
Jurickson Profar also went deep for the Rangers, and scored three runs.
Griffin’s outing was his longest since May 2 as he followed up Cole Hamels’ dominant outing Thursday.
Defending World Series champion Kansas City is just 7-17 in July – losing seven of nine – and All-Star Game MVP Eric Hosmer is a miserable 2-for-30 over his last eight games.
Royals: Cain played for the first time since June 28 after missing 25 games because of a left hamstring strain. The Royals sent OF Brett Eibner to Triple-A Omaha to clear a roster spot for Cain. Kansas City’s bullpen suffered a huge blow as right-hander Luke Hochevar was put on the 15-day disabled list with symptom consistent with thoracic outlet syndrome.
Rangers: Slugger Prince Fielder’s season-ending surgery Friday to fix a herniated disk in his neck went as expected.
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Rangers: Lefty Martin Perez (7-7) was 4-0 in five starts in June, but goes into his sixth start in July still without a win. Ranger fans can only hope that his aggressive play will make Yu Darvish’s competitive nature kick in and maybe they can end the season going into the playoffs with at least 2 pitchers acting like true aces.
