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Royals slip past Rangers

May 15, 2012 - 5:12 AM Arlington, TX (Sports Network) - Alcides Escobar's two-run single in the fifth inning was the difference as the Kansas City Royals downed the Texas Rangers, 3-1, in the opener a two-game series.

Bruce Chen (2-4) allowed a run on five hits and two walks while striking out seven through 6 2/3 innings for the Royals, who earned their third straight win and their fifth in six games.

"He kept the ball down, he mixed pretty good and he was trying to make sure their big boys didn't hurt us," Royals catcher Brayan Pena said about Chen.

Jonathan Broxton worked a scoreless ninth for his eighth save of the year.

Scott Feldman (0-1) gave up two unearned runs on three hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings to suffer the loss.

"My command wasn't there tonight. I'm trying to get outs any way I can at this point," said Feldman. "If ground balls happen they happen, but I'm just more concerned about trying to get guys out."

Nelson Cruz homered for Texas, which lost for the second time in three games.

Kansas City threatened to take the early lead when Jarrod Dyson led off the game with a walk, stole second and moved to third on Eric Hosmer's ground out. But Billy Butler followed with a grounder back the mound that Feldman fielded and caught Dyson in a rundown between home and third.

The Rangers broke the scoreless tie in the fourth inning when Cruz led off the frame by pulling a ball just inside the left field foul pole.

But the Royals answered in the fifth inning to take the lead thanks to a costly error by Texas.

Jeff Francoeur started the inning with a base hit to left and went to second two batters later on a Pena ground out. Chris Getz stepped up next and hit a bouncer to third that Adrian Beltre grabbed for what could have been the final out, but his throw to first pulled Michael Young off the bag.

Getz then stole second before Escobar's single to right plated both Francoeur and Getz to give Kansas City a 2-1 advantage.

Kansas City added another run in the seventh when Francoeur walked, advanced to third on Mike Moustakas' single up the middle and came home on Pena's double-play grounder.

Texas put runners on the corners in the bottom of the seventh on a Craig Gentry two-out walk that was followed by an Elvis Andrus single, but Young went down swinging to end the threat.

Broxton then allowed a two-out pinch-hit single to David Murphy to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but pinch-hitter Mike Napoli was caught looking at a 3-2 slider at the knees to end the game.

Game Notes

Kansas City placed pitcher Danny Duffy on the 15-day disabled list and recalled pitcher Nate Adcock from Triple-A Omaha earlier Monday...The Royals improved to 2-6 in Chen's eight outings this year...Chen is now 2-2 in nine career appearances -- five starts -- against the Rangers. It was his first victory against Texas since 2005 as a member of the Orioles.