Moreland homered with two outs in the ninth inning Saturday night to give the AL West-leading Rangers a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
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“We know that Mitch is obviously capable of these types of runs, and boy it has been needed, and he has responded”, manager Jeff Banister said.
Moreland’s 17th homer landed in the second deck of seats in right field.
The sticky, rumor-infested shadow of the Major League Baseball trading deadline hovered over the proceedings at Globe Life Park on a 96-degree afternoon Sunday.
After having their 10-game division lead shrink to 2 1/2 games last Wednesday, the Rangers have pushed the advantage back up to six games. “I guess the bat was due to go at some point”. Gee said the scouting report on Moreland was to pitch him down and in. “He was pretty quick with the first one, caught me off guard. I wanted to make sure I was ready and got a good pitch, kind of middle of the plate, and I was able to drive it”.
Mitch Moreland homered for the fifth time in his last five starts and Lucas Harrell won in his Texas debut as the Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 on Sunday to finish a sweep of the four-game series. Tolleson started the season as the closer but has a 7.68 ERA in 37 outings…. Offensively, Eric Hosmer leads Kansas City with 109 hits, Alcides Escobar has 25 RBI and Salvador Perez has 15 home runs. Harrell had difficulty throwing strikes against a team that ranks last in the AL for walks.
Cheslor Cuthbert and Raul Mondesi had two of the Royals’ five hits. He had been positioned near shortstop with the Royals shifted for the left-handed batter.
The Rangers do not look at the season by months, manager Jeff Banister said.
Seven-time All-Star infielder Michael Young was inducted into the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony.
Up Next: The Rangers have the day off tomorrow to allow Jon Daniels time to acquire the final pieces for the 2016 World Series champions. He spent the first half of the month on the disabled list with a forearm strain.3.
In fact, the biggest surprise of Sunday might have been five runs from a lineup with three regular starters taking a day off, not to mention the continued absence of injured outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.
“I’m trying to go up there and have good at-bats”, Moreland said.
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Jurickson Profar hit a solo homer in the sixth and Desmond scored ahead of Odor’s second homer in the seventh on a wild pitch.Volquez surrendered six runs (five earned) on nine hits in his six innings. Gee is from Cleburne, Texas, which is about 45 miles from Rangers Ballpark. With his win Thursday night, Texas LHP Cole Hamels became the first pitcher in club history to have at least 12 victories and fewer than four losses in one season by the end of July. Kennedy is 0-2 with a 5.82 ERA in three career starts against the Rangers and has struggled with Adrian Beltre (4-for-10, one homer).Perez also has been shaky of late, going 0-3 with a 7.53 ERA during a five-start winless stretch.
