(TSX / STATS) — KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mike Napoli hit a rare Texas Rangers pinch-hit home run and Adrian Beltre just continues to knock the ball out of the park at age 38.
Napoli and Beltre accounted for all of the Rangers’ runs as they rallied to defeat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 on Friday night.
The Royals (44-44) have dropped four straight and are winless in five games this season against the Rangers (44-45), who won their 10th straight over Kansas City dating to last season.
Napoli’s pinch-homer with Carlos Gomez aboard in the seventh broke a 3-3 deadlock. Napoli pulled Mike Minor’s 2-2 pitch 444 feet out to left.
“That’s what he is here for,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said of Napoli hitting Joey Gallo. “We just felt the better matchup was Napoli.”
It was the Rangers’ first pinch-homer since Leonys Martin did it May 19, 2015, at Boston.
“Any time you can come through like that late in the game, it’s always fun,” Napoli said. “Especially coming off the bench in a pinch-hitting situation. It’s tough, but I just got ready to play and put a good swing on it.”
Minor tried to fool Napoli with a changeup.
“I thought it was the right pitch,” Minor said. “It just came back over the plate. If I execute the pitch, we’re fine.”
Beltre helped the Rangers rally from a 3-0 deficit with a three-run blast in the sixth. It was Beltre’s 453rd career home run, moving him one past Carl Yastrzemski and into 38th place on the all-time list. That also upped his RBI count to 1,601 and put him within 20 of reaching 3,000 career hits.
The Royals increased their advantage to 3-0 in the fifth when Whit Merrifield doubled down the right-field line and scored on Jorge Bonifacio’s single to center. Bonifacio was out at second, trying to stretch his hit into a double. That lead soon evaporated.
Jason Hammel did not allow a hit until one out in the sixth, but he failed to get out of the inning.
Elvis Andrus chopped one off the plate for an infield single, which Hammel deflected, for the first Texas hit. Nomar Mazara’s fly-ball single to shallow left moved Andrus to second before Beltre homered.
“It’s been the theme, kind of for the year,” Hammel said. “It’s been just one pitch, which more or less, I want to be down in the zone with it and it’s just a hanger that ends up costing us.
“We let them back in the door there. If we shut the door there, I think we win the ballgame. A slider in the dirt that’s just got to be a better executed pitch there.
“For a guy who’s sitting and from what I know and the experience of just facing him, he sits soft with two strikes. I’ve thrown him quite a few to him already. So he was looking for it and it stayed up enough for him to put a good swing on it.”
After Robinson Chirinos’ two-out single on Hammel’s 108th pitch, manager Ned Yost went to his bullpen, bringing in left-hander Minor.
“If you take back just the one pitch, he was outstanding,” Yost said.
Rangers starter Martin Perez (5-6) threw 89 pitches in seven innings to pick up the victory. Perez allowed three runs and eight hits. He is 3-0 in his past four starts.
Matt Bush worked a flawless eighth and left-hander Alex Caudio got the final three outs for his second save this season.
The Rangers have lost five games this season they have led after eight innings, but this time the bullpen maintained the lead.
Eric Hosmer’s infield single in the Kansas City sixth extended his hitting streak to 16 games, the longest active streak in the majors. Hosmer was quickly erased when Salvador Perez grounded into his 13th double play, one behind the league leader.
Hammel held the Rangers hitless for the first five innings, allowing only three baserunners. He walked Beltre to leadoff the second and Carlos Gomez with two outs in the fifth.
Hosmer’s fielding error put Mazara on base with out in the fourth.
Alcides Escobar extended his hitting streak at home to 11 games with a second-inning home run that clanged off the left-field pole and put the Royals up 2-0. Mike Moustakas, who reached on an infield single, was aboard when Escobar homered on a 2-0 Perez offering.
NOTES: Royals RHP Neftali Feliz went on the paternity list and RHP Miguel Almonte was recalled from Triple-A Omaha to take his bullpen slot. … Rangers RHP Keone Kela, who is on the disabled list with a stiff shoulder, is back on a throwing program, but Texas manager Jeff Banister said it is doubtful he would be activated for the weekend series with the Royals. … Royals RHP Nathan Karns has not yet decided whether to have season-ending thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, but he acknowledged that he is leaning in that direction. … OF Bubba Starling, who was the Royals’ 2011 first-round pick, was placed on the Triple-A Omaha disabled list with an oblique injury.
Photo credit – John Sleezer / TNS / Kansas City, MO