Bust out Herbie! The Rangers defeat the Kansas City Royals 5-3.
Texas acquired Lucas Harrell to basically be not Kyle Lohse and Harrell delivered with a solid not-Lohse performance in his first start since coming over from Atlanta. Harrell went six innings and allowed three runs on four hits which, if you care about such things, is the technical definition of a quality start.
Harrell threw nearly as many balls as strikes (48 of 94) and walked three but he limited damage with a couple of double plays. Harrell struck out two Royals hitters. All in all, it was kind of like a subpar Martin Perez start which is fine for a #5 starter and much better than Kyle Lohse.
With the win, the Rangers have swept the Royals, finished their homestand at 5-2, and return to a division lead of 6 games as the Astros lost 11-0 to get swept by the Tigers in Detroit earlier today.
Player of the Game: Mitch Moreland is surface of the sun hot right now as he hit another laser two-run dinger for his fifth home run of this homestand. Moreland added a single and scored twice in the game. With another good game at the plate, Moreland's wRC+ is above 100 for the first time all year.
Up Next: The Rangers have the day off tomorrow to allow Jon Daniels time to acquire the final pieces for the 2016 World Series champions. On Tuesday, Texas opens a series against the first place Orioles in Baltimore with Yu Darvish on the mound against RHP Dylan Bundy.