Kansas City @ Texas preview

Last Meeting ( May 6, 2010 ) Kansas City 12, Texas 13

Following what seemed to be a never-ending slugfest on Thursday night, the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals appear to be in for a pitcher’s duel tonight. The Rangers send left-hander C.J. Wilson, to the mound against Royals right-hander and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke. Wilson has been Texas’ best pitcher this season, making the most of his opportunity in the rotation and putting together quality start after quality start. In fact, Wilson is the first Rangers pitcher since 1993 with five consecutive quality starts. The converted reliever will look to build on that, coming off a no-decision outing against Seattle in which he went seven innings, allowing one run on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Wilson threw a career-high 114 pitches. In 10 career games against Kansas City, Wilson has a 3.27 ERA and six saves. Offensively, the Rangers came out strong in the series opener, building an early 8-0 lead. Texas scored six runs in the second inning, highlighted by a three-run home run from Justin Smoak. Josh Hamilton, David Murphy, Ian Kinsler and Vladimir Guerrero all had RBI hits, as well. The Texas bullpen struggled, giving up 12 runs over a four-inning stretch. But, in the end, the Rangers pulled through with back-to-back home runs from Hamilton and Guerrero in the pivotal eighth inning. For the Royals, they’ll look to find the win column after losing four of their past five games. Greinke has continued to pitch at a Cy Young-caliber level. But the Royals’ inconsistent offense simply hasn’t provided any run support, and Greinke has yet to win this season. In his last outing against Tampa Bay, for instance, Greinke threw eight innings and gave up only a solo home run to Evan Longoria. Still, he took the loss in a 1-0 game. Greinke took no-decisions in his previous two starts despite leaving with the lead. On April 27, he threw seven scoreless innings against Seattle and exited the game with Kansas City up 2-0 only to see the bullpen give it away. On April 21 against Toronto, Greinke gave up two runs over seven innings and left with a 3-2 lead. That seems to be the case for Greinke his entire career, though. In 11 lifetime outings, including nine starts, against the Rangers, Greinke has posted a 2.68 ERA but has a losing record (3-4) against them. In his lone start in Arlington last year, Greinke got a well-deserved victory, throwing a complete-game shutout in a Royals’ 2-0 victory. One thing going in Greinke’s favor is that the Royals offense showed some life Thursday, posting a season-high 12 runs. Kansas City rallied back from an eight-run deficit, scoring 12 runs in the final five innings. Billy Butler, Scott Podsednik and Alberto Callaspo all had home runs.