ARLINGTON, Texas _ The Royals middle-of-the-order bats Hunter Dozier and Alex Gordon only played a half-game each, but the offense still did enough damage against one of the top pitchers in the American League and their pitching staff held down one of the most explosive offenses in the majors.
The Royals opened their four-game series with the Rangers with a 4-2 win in front of an announced 26,202 at Globe Life Park on Thursday night. Jorge Soler hit his team-leading 14th home run, and Adalberto Mondesi also homered on a night when the Royals collected 10 hits. Mondesi went 3 for 3 with a pair of runs scored, while Ryan O'Hearn had two hits.
The only bad news offensively, came when third baseman Hunter Dozier left the game in the bottom of the fourth inning due to right-sided thorax tightness. Dozier entered the night among the top 10 in the American League in batting average (sixth, .315), on-base percentage (seventh, .397), slugging percentage (third, .592) and triples (fifth, three).
Rangers starter Mike Minor, who spent 2016 and 2017 with the Royals organization, came into the game having ranked among the American League leaders in ERA (fourth, 2.55), opponents slugging percentage (sixth, .349) innings (seventh, 70.2), opponents OPS (ninth, .642) and strikeouts (tied for ninth, 72).
However Royals starter Jakob Junis outdueled him. Junis, who struck out seven for the second consecutive start, allowed two runs on four hits (two home runs) and two walks in six innings.
Junis (4-5) used the tried and tried and true formula of getting ahead in the count and then unleashing the late-breaking slider.
Shin-Soo Choo's third-inning solo home run gave the Rangers the early edge. Choo blasted a 0-1 pitch a smidgeon below belt high over the center field wall for his 10th home run of the season.
Junis struck out five of the first 12 batters he faced, but pitching coach Cal Eldred paid a visit to the mound with two outs in the fourth after Junis issued his first two walks of the night to back-to-back hitters. Junis got the next batter, Rougned Odor, to hit an inning-ending ground ball.
While the Royals couldn't get much going against Minor in the first five innings (four singles), but they worked his pitch count to the cusp of 100 pitches through five innings.
The Royals started the sixth with a Mondesi single, followed by an infield single from Gordon, who entered the game when Dozier left the game, and then Soler smashed the first pitch from Minor off the left-field foul pole for a three-run home run to give the Royals the lead.
Soler, who has two home runs in as many days, came into the day having been 1 for 6 against Minor in his career. That one hit was a home run.
The next batter, Martin Maldonado, roped a line-drive single up the middle that marked the end of the night for Minor.
Nomar Mazara's solo home run with one out in the sixth pulled the Rangers within a run, 3-2. Junis got Hunter Pence, the Ranger's RBI leader, to pop out for the second out of the inning and he froze team home run leader Joey Gallo on a called third strike.
Mondesi gave the Royals the two-run lead back with a one-out solo home run on the first pitch from Rangers reliever Jeffrey Springs in the seventh inning.
The Royals bullpen trio of Wily Peralta, Jake Diekman and Ian Kennedy held the Rangers scoreless in the final three innings.
