Austin Bibens-Dirkx earned his first victory of the season
A'Shawn Robinson Jersey , shutting down a struggling Kansas City Royals squad that’s wondering when it will get its next win.
Bibens-Dirkx pitched effectively into the seventh inning, Rougned Odor homered and the Texas Rangers extended their winning streak to a season-high
five games with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night.
Bibens-Dirkx (1-1) allowed one run and five hits in 6 2/3 innings for his first win since last Sept. 6 in a relief appearance at Atlanta – and sent the
Royals to their ninth straight loss.
”The first two starts didn’t quite go as I had wanted,” Bibens-Dirkx said, ”so to get another opportunity and to come out here and do what I feel like I
can do on a pretty consistent basis was nice.”
Kansas City’s slump is its longest this season, and the Royals have dropped 15 of 16 overall and been outscored 102-38 while losing 16 of 18 in June. Their
worst June in franchise history was 7-19 in 1970, the team’s second year in
existence. The Royals will wind up June with nine games against the Astros,
Angels, Brewers and Mariners, clubs above .500.
Bibens-Dirkx
Kenny Golladay Jersey , a 33-year-old right-hander, spent 12 years in the minors, including two seasons with independent league teams before making his
big league debut last year. He was called up to replace Yohander Mendez, who was
sent to Triple-A Round Rock on Tuesday after violating team rules.
Jake Diekman worked the ninth for his second save, but not before yielding a leadoff homer to Mike Moustakas. The game ended when Hunter Dozier was thrown
out at second on a delayed steal.
”It’s perfect timing,” Royals manager Ned Yost said to steal. ”You probably haven’t noticed that we’ve been having trouble bunching some hits together. It’s
a chance to maybe hopefully catch them by surprise and get into scoring position
and one hit will tie the ballgame up and keep us going.”
Yost acknowledged that Isiah Kiner-Falefa making his first big league start behind the plate factored into the decision to send Dozier. His throw nearly hit
Diekman in the head.
”It was kind of scary, a crazy, crazy way to end the game,” Kiner-Falefa said. ”It worked out. Everything worked out. That was close. I was kind of in
shock that he was out. I was just glad it didn’t hit Jake
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Diekman just avoided being hit.
”I was shocked – that the ball was thrown, that he was running at all – but it was my bad for not getting out of the way,” Diekman said. ”It ended the game
and it didn’t hit me, so we’re good.”
Odor homered into the Royals’ bullpen with two outs in the sixth on a 1-2 pitch from Royals starter Jakob Junis, who has lost his last five starts and has
not won since May 18. Junis (5-8) has given up 19 home runs to tie for the
American League lead. He allowed three runs and five hits with four walks and a
hit batter.
”I’ve given up a lot of home runs this year,” Junis said. ”It’s something I’m conscious about. I’m trying to keep in the ball park because when I do that’s
when I have more success. I can’t pinpoint on it on one exact thing.”
Shin-Soo Choo led off the game with a single, extending his on-base streak to 34 games. He stole second, moved to third on Elvis Andrus‘ high chopper back to
Junis and scored on Nomar Mazara’s fly out to center
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The Rangers loaded the bases with no outs in the second on singles by Jurickson Profar and Odor and Joey Gallo’s first of three walks. The Rangers,
however, converted that into only one run when Kiner-Falefa grounded into a
double play.
Alex Gordon singled with one out in the Kansas City second and scored on Dozier’s double.
HYPHENATED BATTERYMATES
Bibens-Dirkx and Kiner-Falefa became the first starting pitcher and catcher in big league history with hyphenated last names.
WHO’S CLOSING?
After the Royals traded closer Kelvin Herrera to Washington, who will inherit that role? ”All of them,” Yost said of his relievers. ”Opportunity exists down
there. We’ll have to see who takes advantage of it. I’ll look at different guys,
but I would prefer one guy to emerge, take advantage of the opportunity. But
it’s wide-open right now.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: LHP Martin Perez (elbow discomfort) threw batting practice to C Robinson Chirinos and OF Carlos Tocci. He is hopeful to begin a minor league
rehab assignment Monday. ”There were some quality pitches inside the set, like a
guy that was getting ready to take the next step of the rehab process,” Banister
said. … RHP Chris Martin (right calf strain) also threw to hitters. He is
eligible to come off the disabled list Friday. ”He’s close
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UP NEXT
Rangers: Off on Thursday before opening a weekend series Friday at Minnesota with LHP Mike Minor (4-4, 5.35) starting.
Royals: Travel day on Thursday to Houston, where LHP Danny Duffy (3-7, 5.55) will start the series opener Friday.
— San Francisco newcomer Richard Sherman will miss the next week of training camp and the 49ers‘ preseason opener after
straining a hamstring in practice Friday.
“We’re definitely going to rest him at least a week,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Saturday. “We don’t think it should be long term. It’s Grade 1,
it’s a little higher than we expected so we got to be careful with that.”
The former Seattle cornerback was hurt chasing down receiver Pierre Garcon after a long completion from Jimmy Garoppolo during a full-team drill. The
three-time All-Pro returned to practice at the start of training camp after
suffering a torn right Achilles in November with the Seahawks. Sherman signed a
three-year $39.15 million deal in the offseason after being cut by Seattle.
In Sherman’s place Sunday, the 49ers rotated Tyvis Powell and Greg Mabin with the starting defense. Jimmie Ward stepped in for Sherman during the offseason
program but has been withheld from full-team drills after suffering a hamstring
strain last week. Ward has participated during individual portions of the last
two practices.
San Francisco opens its preseason slate Thursday night at home against the Dallas Cowboys.
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