Josh Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero drilled back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning to lift the Texas Rangers to a wild 13-12 victory over the Kansas City Royals in Thursday’s opener of a four-game series.
The Royals grabbed a one-run lead in the top of the eighth on Kila Ka’aihue’s pinch-hit single before the pair of Texas sluggers took Royals closer Joakim Soria (0-1) deep.
Frank Francisco (4-3) picked up the win despite surrendering the lead before Neftali Feliz struck out two in a perfect ninth for his seventh save.
The Rangers jumped out to an 8-0 lead after a six-run second inning, highlighted by a three-run home run from Justin Smoak.
Kansas City scored two runs apiece in the fourth and fifth innings to pull within 8-4, but the Rangers responded with a single run in the fifth.
The Royals later rallied for five runs in the sixth off Texas reliever Dustin Nippert to tie things at 9-9 on RBI hits from Jason Kendall and Mitch Maier and Scott Podsednik’s three-run homer.
Guerrero launched his first homer of the game, a two-run shot in the sixth, before the Royals answered in the seventh when Alberto Callaspo roped a two-run shot to again even the score.
Kansas City | Texas | |
Kyle Davies | Player | Matt Harrison |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
4.0 | IP | 5.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 1 |
9 | Hits | 4 |
20.25 | ERA | 7.20 |
Kansas City | Texas | |
Billy Butler | Player | Ian Kinsler |
2 | Hits | 3 |
3 | RBI | 1 |
1 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 4 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Kansas City | 11 | 3 | 21 | .306 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
Texas | 15 | 4 | 31 | .395 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 0 |