ARLINGTON, Texas _ Royals starter Yordano Ventura completed eight innings and threw a season-high 112 pitches on Thursday night here at Globe Life Park.
Three of those pitches made the difference.
Ventura allowed three solo homers, including two to Texas' Mitch Moreland, as the Royals fell, 3-2, to the Rangers in the opening game of a four-game series. It was just the second time in his career that Ventura had allowed three homers in one game.
The Royals fell to 49-52 as the non-waiver trade deadline awaits on Monday. The offense managed just two runs against Texas left-hander Cole Hamels, who struck out 12 over eight innings. The Rangers, 59-44, had taken two of three from the Royals at Kauffman Stadium last weekend. They will attempt to take a 2-0 series lead on Friday night, when Royals starter Edinson Volquez faces Rangers right-hander A.J. Griffin.
On Thursday, the Royals took one-run leads in the second and fifth innings. Each time, the Rangers responded with a solo homer off Ventura.
As center fielder Lorenzo Cain continued his rehab assignment three hours away in Round Rock, Texas, Paulo Orlando earned the start in center and opened the scoring in the top of the second. Orlando dropped his barrel on an 89-mph fastball and crushed his second homer of the season to deep left field. The solo blast traveled 446 feet and gave the Royals a 1-0 lead. It would last just a half-inning.
In the bottom of the second, Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor deposited a solo homer into the seats in right field.
Royals rookie infielder Raul A. Mondesi gave the Royals a 2-1 lead in the fifth on an RBI ground-out. This time, Moreland drove a 96-mph fastball into the seats in left-center field in the bottom of the inning.
In official terms, Ventura recorded the Royals' first complete game of the season and the first of his career. But Moreland made sure that Ventura could not go nine, homering on a 3-2 changeup in the bottom of the eighth.
Just like that, the Royals opened another road series with a loss.
