Ian Kinsler broke a tie with a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Texas Rangers held on for a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday.
Kinsler’s hit off Kansas City starter Gil Meche dropped in after it appeared charging right fielder Jose Guillen would make a play on the ball, scoring Michael Young for what proved to be the go-ahead run.
Texas closer Neftali Feliz made it interesting in the ninth, giving up a lead-off single to Chris Getz. But he induced a double-play grounder from David DeJesus and ended the game getting Scott Podsednik to fly out for his eighth save.
The Rangers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with single runs in the first and second innings. Josh Hamilton had an RBI groundout and Elvis Andrus added an RBI single in the second.
The Royals got back in the game with a run in the fourth on Mitch Maier’s RBI single and a solo home run from DeJesus in the fifth inning.
Rangers reliever Chris Ray (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth inning to earn the victory.
Meche (0-4) had his best game of the season, going all eight innings and allowing three runs on six hits with three strikeouts.
Kansas City | Texas | |
Gil Meche | Player | Rich Harden |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
8.0 | IP | 5.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 3 |
6 | Hits | 6 |
3.38 | ERA | 3.60 |
Kansas City | Texas | |
Billy Butler | Player | Ian Kinsler |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 2 |
.667 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Kansas City | 10 | 1 | 14 | .286 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Texas | 6 | 0 | 6 | .231 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 0 |