Rangers hold on against Royals to halt skid

The Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak behind another solid start from Cole Hamels and three RBIs from Nomar Mazara to beat the Royals 7-4 Saturday evening at Kauffman Stadium.

Pitching: The Royals scored an unearned run in the first after a double got away from Mazara in the right-field corner. Cheslor Cuthbert scored from third on a ground out to short before Hamels got out of the inning. Hamels went 5 1/3 innings. He left after a one-out single in the sixth leading 3-1. He allowed five hits, three walks and struck out four. He struck out Christian Colon to end the fourth after loading the bases with two walks and an infield single. In the fifth, Hamels had runners on second and third before getting Salvador Perez to pop out. Tony Barnette pitched a perfect 1 2/3 of relief. Matt Bush pitched a perfect eighth. Shawn Tolleson started the ninth but was replaced by Sam Dyson after three singles with one out cut the lead to 7-2. Dyson walked his first batter to load the bases. Eric Hosmer drove in a run with an infield single to make it 7-4 before Dyson got a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

Hitting: Royals’ starter Yordano Ventura retired the first nine Rangers before Jurickson Profar walked to start the fourth. Nomar Mazara followed with a two-run homer to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Later in the inning, Adrian Beltre doubled and Elvis Andrus and Mitch Moreland walked to load the bases but Robinson Chirinos grounded out to end the inning. The Rangers took a 3-1 lead in the fifth when Mazara doubled to right-center to score Delino DeShields, who started the inning with a walk. Texas scored four runs in the seventh, including Beltre’s three-run homer against Joakim Soria.

Notables: Mazara’s homer snapped a 27-game homerless stretch ... Mazara’s error on a deflection off the wall in the right-field corner in the first inning was the first of his career. He played 88 games with 200 chances before the error ... Beltre tied with Mike Piazza and Miguel Cabrera for 47th all-time with 428 homers. He’s also now 50th all-time in RBIs with 1,527.

This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Rangers hold on against Royals to halt skid."