Hyphenated battery helps Rangers sweep Royals
Rougned Odor homered, and Austin Bibens-Dirkx picked up his first win of the season as the visiting Texas Rangers completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Rangers, who have won 17 of their past 20 meetings with the Royals dating back to July 23, 2016.
Kansas City dropped its ninth straight game, its longest losing streak of the season. The Royals have dropped 15 of their past 16 games.
Bibens-Dirkx (1-1) allowed just five hits and a run over 6 2/3 innings. He was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock after scheduled starter Yohander Mendez was sent down as a disciplinary measure after what was called a violation of team rules following Monday night's 6-3 win over the Royals.
The right-hander walked one and didn't strike out a batter. He also made history by combining with catcher Isiah Kiner-Falefa to form the first battery in major league history of players with hyphenated surnames. Kiner-Falefa, making his big league catching debut, threw out Hunter Dozier trying to steal second to end the game.
Jakob Junis (5-8) dropped his fifth straight decision despite allowing just three runs on five hits over six innings, walking four and also striking out four. Alex Gordon and Dozier each had a single and a double for Kansas City.
Texas left fielder Shin-Soo Choo led off the game with a single to right and later scored on a sacrifice fly by right fielder Nomar Mazara. Choo extended his streak of reaching base to 34 games, the longest active streak in the majors and the second longest of the season behind Odubel Herrera of the Phillies, who had a 40-gamer.
The Rangers made it 2-0 in the second when Jurickson Profar, who singled to start the inning, scored on a bases-loaded, double-play groundout by Kiner-Falefa.
The Royals cut it to 2-1 in the bottom of the second on an RBI double to center by Dozier that drove in Gordon, who had singled.
Odor made it 3-1 in the sixth with his second homer of the season.
Mike Moustakas led off the bottom of the ninth with his 14th homer of the season to right-center field off reliever Jake Diekman, who rebounded to pick up his second save of the season.
--Field Level Media
