Texas Rangers prevail against Kansas City Royals 5-3 – MLB Update
Texas Rangers showed great courage and composure to prevail 5-3 against a very inspired Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri in the opening game of their three match series.
The Royals looked very comfortable in front of their home crowd on Friday evening but the Rangers counter attacked brilliantly to register another superb victory.
Royals’ starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie created all sorts of problems for the Rangers’ mighty hitting line-up. However, despite giving up just three runs in six solid innings, he ended up with his third loss of the season.
His counterpart Matt Harrison gave up just two runs in six plus innings to improve to 13-6. Alexi Ogando tossed up the perfect ninth for his second save of the year.
"He's got a mean streak now," Rangers’ manager Ron Washington said of Harrison. "That mean streak grew into him. He didn't always have it. He hates to be taken out of the game.”
"I had a pretty successful year last year and I wanted to continue doing that," Harrison said in post match interview. "My confidence has grown a lot in myself and trusting my stuff. I understand why I get taken out of games, but I hate getting taken out
of innings. I want to finish the inning every time, but it's understandable with the situation."
Nelson Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to right in the first inning to put Rangers on the board, setting the tone for the rest of the game. Daniel Murphy had an RBI single to left in the fourth and first baseman Mitch Moreland homered to right centre in the seventh
to give Texas complete control of the situation.
Credit should be given to the Royals for giving a tough time to their superior opponents. Yuniesky Betancourt grounded into double play in the second and Alcides Escobar earned an RBI single to centre in the seventh to reduce Rangers’ lead to 5-3.
Betancourt had an excellent game with the bat as he finished with two RBI’ but his effort was not enough to lead the Royals to a much needed victory.
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