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Blunders allow Royals to sneak past Rangers

Aug 6, 2012 - 12:11 AM Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Eric Hosmer crossed the plate with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Kansas City Royals edged the Texas Rangers, 7-6, in the finale of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

Facing Michael Kirkman (0-2), Billy Butler drew a leadoff walk, and the Rangers' defense crumbled from there. Salvador Perez followed and poked a tailor-made double-play ball to shortstop, but the ball was booted by Alberto Gonzalez.

With runners on first and second, Jeff Francoeur slapped a ball to third, where rookie Mike Olt went to second for the force play, but fired the ball high into right field, allowing Hosmer to score the winning run as a pinch- runner.

"It was a nice, easy play right to me, and the ball just kind of got away," Olt said of the deciding play. "That's a play I make 99 out of 100 times. It's just something to look past and move on."

Greg Holland (5-3) earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief work for the Royals, who snapped a brief two-game skid.

Francoeur ripped a solo home run and Brayan Pena added a two-run long ball in the victory.

Elvis Andrus knocked in a pair of runs and Adrian Beltre went 3-for-4 with an RBI single and a run scored for Texas, which had its four-game winning streak snapped.

The Royals opened the scoring with a pair of runs in their first at-bat courtesy of a two-run double by Perez, but the potent Rangers offense struck for five runs in the fourth to take the lead.

Josh Hamilton began the frame with a ringing double to right and went to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a base hit by Beltre. Nelson Cruz was then hit by a pitch and David Murphy reached on a fielder's choice, which allowed Beltre to score on a throwing gaffe by Butler. Mitch Moreland walked two batters later to load the bases and Olt brought home a run with a sacrifice fly before Andrus capped the big inning with a two-run triple, making it a 5-2 game.

Francoeur smoked a fastball from Rangers starter Derek Holland over the wall in right-center for a solo shot in the fourth and Butler drove home Chris Getz with a single in the fifth to pull the Royals within one, 5-4.

Kansas City then plated two more runs in the sixth to take a 6-5 lead. Francoeur singled to start the inning and Pena brought him home with a towering shot over the wall just inside the left field foul pole.

"We've been working hard as a team," Francoeur said. "We said we wanted to turn things around here and today we played really well. Everybody contributed today with some nice hits."

Olt drew a leadoff walk in the seventh and Andrus followed with a base hit before Michael Young laced a double off the wall in center field, scoring Olt to tie the game at six.

Game Notes

Holland gave up six runs on eight hits and two walks over six innings. He has given up at least two home runs in four consecutive start, and it was the third time in his last four outings in which he allowed at least six runs...Andrus left the game in the ninth inning due to right shoulder stiffness. He is listed as day-to-day...The Rangers took two of three in the series and improved to 11-3-2 in their last 16 series...Luke Hochevar started for Kansas City and allowed five runs -- one earned -- on four hits and a walk over six innings.