*Photo from AP News*
What happened here? Hunter Renfroe homered, Salvador Perez added a homer of his own, and the Kansas City Royals rolled past the Texas Rangers with a 7-1 victory Friday night in Kansas City.
Engaged in a close game for the first two-thirds of the contest, it became a laugher for the final few innings thanks to a 6 run inning in the 7th that opened the floodgates for the Royals. It's the Royals 3rd straight win and 7th in 10 games as they're now 20-13 on the season, second in the AL Central.
After a scoreless first two innings, the Rangers got on the board in the 3rd. Corey Seager did the honors, hitting a single into left field that brought home Marcus Semien to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until the 5th inning, when Renfroe hit a solo home run to left field, tying the game 1-1 on his 3rd homer of the season.
Come the 7th inning, the dam broke and the Royals offense erupted. Kyle Isbel started it off with an RBI single to give the Royals a 2-1 lead. Bobby Witt Jr and Vinnie Pasquantino followed with RBI singles of their own, extending the lead to 4-1. Perez then hit his 8th home run of the season to make it a 7-1 game.
Brady Singer toed the rubber for the Royals, giving up one run and picking up 8 strikeouts in 6 innings pitched. John Schreiber pitched a scoreless 7th inning to get the win. Angel Zerpa and Colin Selby each added a scoreless inning after to seal the win.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro said of Singer's start that "The fact that the swing and miss kept going gave us the confidence to send him back out there for the sixth. He looked just as sharp in the sixth as he had earlier."
Michael Lorenzen started for the Rangers and was responsible for one run on 4 hits and 3 walks in 6 innings. Cole Winn got just one out in the 7th and gave up 4 runs, with Jose Urena responsible for the other two runs. Yerry Rodriguez worked a scoreless 8th inning.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of the 7th inning that "I think you can attribute to Cole being a little off. He’s been so good. Really been locked in with his command and everything, but was a little off tonight. They strung together some hits. The floodgates opened up there. If you only score one run, it's going to be tough to win."
The series continues on Saturday night. Dane Dunning takes the mound for the Rangers as they try to secure a series win while Michael Wacha starts for the Royals, who look to tie the series up ahead of the finale.
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