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Guillen drives in five as Royals top Rangers

Apr 30, 2008 - 5:04 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Jose Guillen homered and had five RBI as the Kansas City Royals posted a 9-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game series.

Mark Teahen tripled and drove in three runs and Mark Grudzielanek added four hits and scored three runs for the Royals, who have won three of their last four contests.

Michael Young, Josh Hamilton and Ramon Vazquez all had two hits and an RBI for the Rangers, who have lost nine of their last 11 games.

Guillen blasted a two-run shot over the left field wall in the fourth inning to extend Kansas City's advantage to 7-2.

The 31-year-old Guillen also started a three-run first inning with an RBI groundout. He added a two-run single in the second to give the Royals an early 5-0 lead.

"Sometimes you get lucky in situations where they hang those breaking pitches," Guillen said. "Fortunately, it happened tonight twice."

Texas starter Jason Jennings (0-5) left the game in the third inning with an irritated ulnar nerve in his right arm. He was roughed up for five runs and eight hits with a walk and no strikeouts in just two-plus innings.

"He got the ball up and when you do that against a good hitting team like this, they're going to smack the ball around the ballpark like they did tonight," Rangers manager Ron Washington said.

The Rangers quickly began chipping away at the lead after Jennings' departure, plating two runs in the third and three more in the next frame. Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Young both had RBI doubles in the fourth, helping Texas cut the deficit to 7-5.

Teahen smacked a two-run triple down right-field line in the eighth to give the Royals a 9-5 advantage.

"It was good to see the offense come alive tonight. We caught a couple of breaks early with some balls that found holes," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "Obviously, I would have liked to have seen the pitching hold up, but we're glad to get the win."

Kansas starter Brett Tomko lasted just 3 1/3 frames, surrendering five runs and seven hits with three walks with three strikeouts. He was replaced by Ron Mahay (1-0), who pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win.

"I just left too many pitches up," Tomko said. "It's not fun when you go out there with a big lead and not be able to finish it off."

Hamilton's run-scoring single in the third gave him 28 RBI in April, tying him with Alex Rodriguez (2002) for second behind Juan Gonzalez' 35 RBI in 1998 for the club record in that month.