Moreland, Harrell lead Rangers to 5-3 win over Royals

Moreland is 6-for-10 with three home runs this weekend and has at least one RBI in every contest during his five-game hitting streak.

Moreland was 8 for 13 with four homers in the series, including a walk-off victor on Saturday night. “It’s just not happening”. I bet Moreland wishes he could face KC Royals pitchers for 162 games a season so he could break Barry Bonds’ home run record. They have a five-game division lead over the Houston Astros. “It was a guy I’d never seen before”, Moreland said. “They’ve done a great job keeping us in ballgames and keeping it close and really battling out there and giving us a chance as an offense to put some runs on the board and help win the ballgame”. While his overall numbers are decent, it’s been rough for him in the rotation as he’s 2-4 with a 6.43 ERA in his six starts.

“He’s been throwing good”, manager Ned Yost said. Young played for Texas from 2000-12 and is the franchise leader in games played (1,823), hits (2,230), runs (1,085), doubles (415) and triples (55).

Davis spent time on the 15-day disabled list earlier this month with a strain in his forearm.

“I barely touched the ball”, Hosmer said. “I guess the bat was due to go at some point”. “He was pretty quick with the first one, caught me off guard”.

Brooks Pounders (1-1) had gotten the first two outs in the ninth before Moreland hit a 420-foot blast on 1-0 pitch, setting off a wild celebration at home plate after the Rangers won their third straight for their AL-high 61st win. Rangers manager Jeff Banister gave CF Ian Desmond and SS Elvis Andrus the day off ahead of Monday’s travel day.

The Royals on Saturday acquired OF Billy Burns from Oakland for OF prospect Brett Eibner, who was sent back to Triple-A Omaha after Lorenzo Cain came off the disabled list Friday.

TEXAS: The Rangers are now a ideal 5-0 in their last five games versus American League Central opponents and have taken six of seven versus right-handed starters as well. That lead lasted exactly three batters until Kendrys Morales made the last out of the KC Royals half of the first, and Texas leadoff hitter Delino DeShields walked before Nomar Maraza blasted a two-run shot off of KC sacrificial lamb Dillon Gee. Texas scored an insurance run in the seventh against rookie pitcher Matt Strahm, who arrived from AA NW Arkansas just before the game to make his major-league debut.

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.

Even though Martinez looked a little better over three starts in June, he still left plenty of work for the bullpen and settled for no-decisions in games the Rangers would eventually lose. Both losses have come since returning from the disabled list on July 16 following shoulder discomfort.