Bayern Trupp » . Thats a lot of breathing room.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura succinctly and aptly described the series finale at Texas. "Its an odd game," Ventura said after the 16-2 victory Sunday that ended Chicagos four-game losing streak. There was the bases-loaded triple by the fill-in leadoff hitter Marcus Semien after an intentional walk to the No. 9 batter, the strikeout that stood on a replay challenge after Alejandro De Aza insisted he was hit by the pitch, and White Sox starter Erik Johnson allowing two runs on only one hit over five innings. "Its always a good day if you get a win, the team gets a win," Johnson said. "If you can go out and compete without your best stuff and your team overcomes and puts up a lot of runs, its always a positive." Jose Abreu and Jordan Danks each had two-run homers while Johnson combined with three relievers on a two-hitter against the Rangers, who had won five in a row. The White Sox went ahead to stay with three unearned runs off Robbie Ross (1-1) in the fifth, including Abreus fifth homer of the season for a 5-2 lead. Johnson (1-1) allowed only a single, but the right-hander walked the leadoff batter the first four innings and threw only 44 of his 87 pitches for strikes. Texas also scored on a wild pitch, and had another runner thrown out trying to do the same. "Youre either effectively wild or effectively lucky," Ventura said. Semien had a career-high four hits, including a bases-loaded trip in a strange sixth when Ross struck out the last two batters he faced on non-routine plays. Semien was hitting leadoff with Adam Eaton getting a couple of days off to rest some nagging leg issues. Ross final batter was Alejandro De Aza, who was called out on a third-strike check swing, right after Alexei Ramirez reached because of a wild pitch on the third strike. Ventura unsuccessfully challenged, claiming the ball hit De Aza or the bat. The ruling from umpires in New York was that the call on the field stood -- that the batter was out on a checked swing. De Aza said the ball hit both his hand and the bat. The ball appeared to change direction for some reason. "Im not even going to check (replay). I know what happened," De Aza said. "Im just in shock, thats all I can say." Ventura got no real explanation on the final decision. "Its another one of those vague it just stands," he said. "Theyre saying they dont have any evidence that it hit the bat." Reliever Shawn Tolleson got the third consecutive strikeout in the inning before the Rangers opted to intentionally walk Danks. Semien then tripled off the base of the left-centre field wall to make it 8-2. "Thats a little fire, it gives you a little fire when you see that happen right in front of you," he said. "Im glad I got the result and we as a team got the result." Tyler Flowers, who had three hits, had a leadoff single in the fifth, then went to third on Semiens one-out grounder when third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff made a throwing error while trying to start a double play. Conor Gillaspie had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly before Abreu homered. Ross, a converted reliever, had a career high eight strikeouts with no walks in his 5 1-3 innings after not allowing an earned run his previous two starts. The lefty gave up seven hits and seven runs, four of them earned. "If you hit your location, and throwing strikes is never detrimental, just missed his location on a few of them," manager Ron Washington said. "And then we didnt make a play behind him. That opened things up for them." Ronald Belisario threw two scoreless innings before Andre Rienzo and Matt Lindstrom each worked an inning for Chicago. Flowers had a leadoff single in the third before Danks first homer. Josh Wilson drew a leadoff walk and scored on a sac fly by Shin-Soo Choo in the Texas third, which ended when Leonys Martin got tagged out trying to score on pitch that ricocheted off the backstop. Elvis Andrus walked to start the fourth, then went to third on a stolen base and errant throw by catcher Flowers before scoring on a wild pitch. NOTES: Rangers INF Luis Sardinas became the youngest player to appear in the majors this season when the 20-year-old made his major league debut. He came into the game at shortstop for Andrus and then got an infield single his first at-bat. ... Kouzmanoff was 0 for 3, ending his 10-game hitting streak to start his Rangers career. Jose Urquidy Jersey . “The fact that he was willing to do the deal the way we wanted it to be done showed that he wanted me to be a part of something great," Lowry said, noting that Ujiri willingness to sign off on the proposal that both Lowry and his agent presented to the GM was the final straw that convinced him to return. Houston Astros Gear . Wearing bib No. 1, Maze skied through the gates cleanly to defend her big first-run lead and finish 0.07 seconds ahead of Anna Fenninger of Austria. Defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was third, trailing 0. https://www.cheapastros.com/223o-lance-m...sey-astros.html. - A retired Indiana school principal who was NASCAR star Jeff Gordons drivers education teacher was killed with his wife in a Tennessee crash while returning from watching Gordon race. Roger Clemens Astros Jersey . Head coach Lindy Ruff confirmed on Sunday that his starting goalie has a head injury and the team will take it day by day. Yordan Alvarez Astros Jersey . A Swiss Federal Tribunal ruling published Friday said that FIFAs disputes panel and the Court of Arbitration for Sport correctly imposed the sanction for Nantes enticing Guinea forward Ismael Bangoura to break his contract with Dubai club Al Nasr in January 2012.MINNEAPOLIS -- Sitting in his office about 10 feet away from the Kansas City Royals locker room, manager Ned Yosts voice was nearly drown out by the thunderous hip hop music blaring and the full-throated cackling from his players in the next room. The young Royals have good reason to celebrate these days. Alcides Escobar tied a career high with four RBIs on two doubles and Salvador Perez homered to lift the Royals to a 6-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. "Thats what we need," Perez said. "Have some fun and play the game hard." Danny Duffy (5-7) gave up one run and four hits while striking out three in 5 2-3 innings and Mike Moustakas had two hits for the Royals. Kansas City (43-39) has won three of four and is off to its best start since 2003. "Were very confident in what we have in the tank," Duffy said. "Weve got a great offence, great lineup. The defence is always flashing the leather. When we go out there and make pitches, its going to be a good night." Yohan Pino (0-2) gave up four runs and seven hits while also striking out three in 5 2-3 innings for the Twins. Eduardo Nunez had two hits and an RBI in his return from the disabled list for Minnesota, which has lost six of its last seven games to drop into last place in the AL Central. "Weve been facing some pretty decent pitching, and I dont know if its pressing," said manager Ron Gardenhire, whose Twins went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position. "I just know were just not getting enough big hits right now. Were not putting any runs on the board. A lot of pressure on our pitchers to be really good." The Royals entered the night 3 1/2 games behind Detroit in the division and 1 1/2 games out of the AL wild card. For a team that has been endlessly rebuilding and hasnt made the playoffs since 1985, those are encouraging numbers as the sseason reaches its midpoint.dddddddddddd They grabbed everyones attention with a 10-game winning streak that vaulted them into first place in June, but had lost seven of 10 games as the bats cooled off. The Royals signed 42-year-old Raul Ibanez on Monday, hoping he can help boost the teams scuffling offence and give a little extra support to a solid starting rotation. Ibanez broke into the big leagues with the Royals a decade ago, but hit just .157 in 57 games for the Angels this season. They had plenty of offence with him on the bench on Monday night. Pino was shaky early, getting tagged for a two-run double by Escobar in the second inning and an RBI-single from Alex Gordon in the fourth to fall behind 3-0. Perezs solo homer in the sixth ended Pinos day and the Royals took advantage of two throwing errors by second baseman Brian Dozier in the eighth, padding their lead with Escobars second two-run double of the game. "When youre not going good, youre not capitalizing on mistakes," Yost said. "When youre playing well, you do capitalize on mistakes. Thats exactly what we did tonight, which was big. Those were two big runs right there. Thats a lot of breathing room." NOTES: Twins GM Terry Ryan said prized prospect Byron Buxton is getting close to returning from a wrist injury that has kept him out for most of the season. Ryan said there still is no timetable for a return, but hed be surprised if Buxton wasnt back on the field sometime in July. ... Twins RF Chris Parmelee extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double in the fifth inning. ... Moustakas made two stellar plays at 3B, a lunging catch on a liner by Kendrys Morales in the second and a scoop and force out at 3B to end a threat in the seventh. ... Twins RHP Ricky Nolasco (4-6, 5.74) will start the second game of the series against RHP James Shields (8-3, 3.79). ' ' '