The Rangers’ bats were left smoldering on Tuesday after collecting 13 hits on the way to an 8-3 win over the Royals, adding a little oomph to Jon Gray, who manned the pitching mound on the night.
“Them coming out on fire, it put us up early and gave us a good feel,” Gray told MLB.com. “From there on, I just wanted to run with it and get as deep into the game as possible. Hats off to them. They were on fire. It was awesome.”
Gray, acquired via free agency this season, pushed his record to 4-3 on the season with the win. He pitched seven innings, allowing five hits and one earned run while walking two and fanning eight.
Marcus Siemen, batting in the three-hole for the Rangers, corked a sharp liner to center in the first inning to get the hit parade started for Texas. Semien advanced to second on a wild pitch and then trotted home on a Kole Calhoun single for the early 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless second inning, Josh Smith led off the third with a line-drive single to right, and Corey Seager belted a ground-ball base-knock to right, pushing Smith to third. Marcus Semien then punched an 83 mph, 2-2 changeup into the Rangers bullpen for his eighth longball of the season, pacing Texas to a 4-0 lead.
Though the quad-runs were more than enough for Gray, Seager came to the dish in the top of the fourth with the bases full of Rangers (Brad Miller and Steven Duggar both hitting singles and Smith climbing aboard via a walk) and raked a 1-1 curveball into left field scoring two for a 6-1 Texas lead.
Semien added a sac-fly RBI to cap the inning and gave Texas a 7-1 lead.
Rangers skipper Chris Woodward pointed out that while he appreciates the Rangers’ efforts, it was just one game, though one to grow on.
“It was just like, ‘Hey, we can be better, and we’ve got to be better than this,'” Woodward said. “I think this series against Kansas City, we came in with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder to say we’re not gonna let that happen again. We’ve still got a lot of games left. Today and yesterday, we did a really good job, but we have to move on, and we gotta do it again tomorrow.”
Gray’s departure from the mound after the seventh allowed José Leclerc to pitch the eighth. “Pico” tossed one inning, allowing two earned runs on two hits.
Santana pitched a perfect ninth inning as the Rangers took game two of the four-game series 8-3.
The win keeps Texas 10 games back of frontrunner Houston in the AL West and pads the second-place squad’s lead over third-place Los Angeles to two games.
Game three is set for 2:10 p.m. EDT on Wednesday and pits Texas’ Dane Dunning (1-5, 4.17) against Zack Greinke (1-4, 4.68) for the Royals. In the past, Rangers sluggers Calhoun and Seager have owned Greinke, batting .545 (22 at-bats) and .421 (19 plate appearances), respectively, against the 2009 Cy Young Award winner.