Bobby Witt Jr. clubbed his 100th career homer, Vinnie Pasquantino and Mike Yastrzemski also went deep, and the Kansas City Royals won their fifth straight game, beating the visiting Texas Rangers 5-2 on Tuesday.
Pasquantino and Yastrzemski each homered in a second consecutive contest for the Royals, who have taken the first two contests in the current three-game series and are 7-1 on their 10-game homestand. Kansas City improved to 5-0 vs. Texas this season.
After the Royals snapped a 2-2 tie when Jonathan India was hit by a pitch with bases loaded in the seventh, Witt broke the game open with a two-run homer, well over the center field fence off Cole Winn, an inning later.
At 25 years, 66 days old, Witt is the youngest Royal to reach 100 homers. He became the fourth player ever with at least 100 home runs and 100 steals in his first four major league seasons, joining Bobby Bonds, Darryl Strawberry and Julio Rodriguez.
Kansas City starter Seth Lugo yielded only two runs, on solo homers to Corey Seager and Joc Pederson, in 6 1/3 innings. He permitted three hits and two walks while striking out five.
Lugo dueled with Texas’ Merrill Kelly, whose only hits allowed in six innings were two homers. He fanned three without issuing a walk.
Losers in 10 of 12, the Rangers managed just four hits on the night.
With two outs and nobody on in the first inning, Seager cleared the wall just to the right of center field. However, Pasquantino delivered his own two-out homer over the right-center-field wall in the bottom of the frame.
Texas went back ahead in the fourth when Pederson turned on a Lugo pitch and sent it well into the right field seats. Two innings later, Yastrzemski went deep to right field with two outs, tying the game again.
Kansas City took the lead in the seventh when Pasquantino doubled off Hoby Milner (1-3) and made it to third on back-to-back infield singles from Maikel Garcia and Randal Grichuk. Winn took over on the mound and plunked India to bring home the tiebreaking run.
Winn then fanned John Rave and got Kyle Isbel bounced into an inning-ending 3-2-3 double play.
Kansas City’s Angel Zerpa (4-1) threw 1 1/3 innings in relief, and John Schreiber handled the ninth inning for his first save of the year.
