ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)– Alex Gordon put the Kansas City Royals back ahead in a flash, and Greg Holland made good on his second chance.
Gordon homered on the first pitch of the 10th inning and the Royals beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 Tuesday night.
“I just said if I get a good pitch to hit, a fastball down the middle or something, I’m just going to get a good swing on it,” Gordon said.
And he did, greeting reliever Stolmy Pimentel (0-1) by pulling a fastball into the seats down the right-field line.
Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas also homered for the AL Central leaders, who went ahead on an RBI groundout by Lorenzo Cain in the ninth. Adrian Beltre’s two-out RBI single in the bottom half off Holland tied the game for the fourth time.
“The home runs by (Moustakas) and Gordon were big, but just the ability to come in and trade punches with them was good,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Now that it’s finally shown itself, the power that we have, it’s huge.”
After blowing his first save in seven chances this year, Holland (1-0) returned to throw a perfect 10th. It was the right-hander’s first outing this season that lasted more than one inning.
Gordon also made a nifty defensive play in the seventh. The Gold Glove left fielder picked up Elvis Andrus’ grounder through the infield and threw an off-balance strike to third to get Shin-Soo Choo, who was trying to advance from first base.
“I knew the hit-and-run was going so I just charged the ball as hard as I could,” Gordon said. “The thing about that play is that I can always make that throw and (Moustakas) just slaps the tag really quick. That was a big out.”
That was before Kyle Blanks had an RBI single in the seventh that scored Andrus and made it 5-all. The designated hitter was trying to check his swing when he instead blooped a hit to short right.
After his tying hit in the ninth, with Blanks at the plate, Beltre was picked off first base by catcher Salvador Perez. Beltre initially was called safe by umpire Ted Barrett, but that was overturned on a replay challenge by the Royals.
“Obviously, to beat a team that was in the World Series last year, and is playing well right now, you’ve got to make all the plays you need to make,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “You can’t give them extra chances.”
Hosmer’s sixth homer led off the second. Moustakas hit his fourth on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh as the only batter to face Rangers lefty Alex Claudio, giving Kansas City a 5-4 lead.
