Seth Lugo returned from a scary injury and allowed an earned run over six innings, and Jac Caglianone homered with two RBIs, as the Kansas City Royals held on for their third straight win, 6-5 over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Isaac Collins drove home two with one of his two doubles for the Royals, who doubled five more times after posting eight in their 14-6 win over St. Louis on Thursday. Lugo (3-4), meanwhile, gave up five hits and three walks, but just two runs (one earned) in his first start since taking a line drive to the forehead June 10 versus Texas.

Despite playing without injured All-Stars Maikel Garcia (hand) and Bobby Witt Jr. (MCL sprain), Kansas City secured its first winning home series over the Cardinals since 2020.

St. Louis’ Michael McGreevy (3-6) allowed five runs and eight hits over five innings. Blaze Jordan’s two-RBI single highlighted a three-run ninth for the Cardinals, but Alex Lange got Jose Fermin to ground into a game-ending fielder’s choice to earn his fifth save.

Losers of six of nine, St. Louis wasted no time getting to Lugo in the first. Ivan Herrera walked, went to third on Alec Burleson’s double into the right-field corner and scored via a sacrifice fly from Jordan Walker (two hits).

A lead-off walk again doomed Lugo in the third. Nathan Church drew the base on balls, moved up on a passed ball and came home when Herrera chopped a single into right field.

Kansas City, though, broke out for four runs in the fourth.

Lane Thomas led off with a double down the left-field line and scored via Caglianone’s single. After Caglianone advanced on Salvador Perez’s groundout, he came home on Michael Massey’s looper into center field. John Rave then walked and both he and Massey scored when Collins one-hopped the left-field wall for a 4-2 Royals lead.

Caglianone extended Kansas City’s edge in the fifth with his opposite-field solo shot to left off McGreevy. The Royals made it 6-2 in the sixth on Tyler Tolbert’s sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals and Royals are off Saturday due to the Ecuador-Curacao World Cup match at neighboring Arrowhead Stadium. The series finale is Sunday.

–Field Level Media

Wyatt Langford went 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs as the Texas Rangers rallied from a five-run deficit to earn a 9-7 victory over the visiting San Diego Padres on Friday.

Alejandro Osuna and Jake Burger each drove in two runs, while Jacob deGrom (6-4) threw six innings of six-hit, six-run ball, while striking out nine and walking three. Jacob Latz earned a four-out save — his 13th in 15 tries for Texas, which had dropped five of its last six games.

Ty France hit two home runs and drove in five for San Diego, which has lost three of its last four. Randy Vasquez (6-5) lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits, walking three and striking out one.

San Diego jumped on Texas early, scoring five first-inning runs. After Fernando Tatis Jr. began the game with a walk and Samad Taylor followed with a single, Gavin Sheets’ two-out single scored the Padres’ first run.

Xander Bogaerts walked to load the bases before France hit a grand slam to push the margin to five.

Texas answered with a six-run bottom of the first. Joc Pederson reached on an error and Josh Jung walked to begin the inning. Two batters later, Brandon Nimmo’s double cut the deficit to 5-1. Ezequiel Duran then walked and Osuna doubled to pull the Rangers within two.

Burger doubled to even the score at five apiece. Nicky Lopez singled to place runners on the corners, before Elias Diaz’s infield single gave Texas a 6-5 lead.

France’s second home run went 409 feet and tied the game at six in the top of the fourth.

Jung singled and Langford doubled to put Texas ahead 7-6 in the bottom of the fourth.

Yuki Matsui then relieved Vasquez, tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Against David Morgan in the sixth, Jung and Langford singled before Duran’s RBI single gave the Rangers an 8-6 lead.

Jakob Junis threw a scoreless seventh in relief of deGrom. In the eighth, Sheets’ solo home run off Junis sliced Texas’ lead to 8-7.

Jason Adam took over in the eighth and surrendered Langford’s leadoff homer to push the advantage back to two.

–Field Level Media

Pinch hitter Braxton Fulford delivered a go-ahead two-run double in the eighth inning, and the Colorado Rockies survived a shaky ninth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 in Denver on Friday.

Kyle Freeland struck out eight to become the second Colorado pitcher to reach 1,000 for his career, joining German Marquez (1,069). He finished the game with 1,001 K’s.

TJ Rumfield homered among his two hits and Ezequiel Tovar also had two hits for the Rockies, who recovered to win the opener of the three-game series. Colorado has alternated losses and victories for six games.

Jared Triolo had two hits and an RBI for Pittsburgh, which overcame Freeland’s longest start of the season. Freeland blanked the Pirates on two hits through seven innings and reached his strikeout milestone when he fanned Marcell Ozuna in the seventh.

That came during a stretch when Freeland retired 16 in a row, but Pittsburgh rallied after the lefty got the first out of the eighth.

Esmerlyn Valdez ended the streak with a one-out double. Triolo followed with a run-scoring double to chase Freeland, who wound up charged with two runs on four hits and no walks in 7 1/3 innings.

Jaden Hill came on to face pinch hitter Bryan Reynolds, who produced an RBI single on the reliever’s first pitch. Hill hit Spencer Horowitz with a pitch, and Nick Gonzales tripled to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.

Colorado, which had built a 2-0 edge on Willi Castro’s RBI double in the third and Rumfield’s 11th home run in the fourth, answered in its half of the eighth against Mason Montgomery (2-2).

With two outs, Tyler Freeman and Cole Carrigg singled to put runners on first and second. Fulford then came through to move the Rockies in front.

The Pirates loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth on a single, an error and a walk, but Antonio Senzatela (7-0) struck out Tyler Callihan and got Triolo to hit into a game-ending double play.

Pittsburgh starter Bubba Chandler tossed six strong innings, allowing two runs on six hits during his first start at Colorado. He walked two and struck out one. Chandler earned a save when he made his major league debut against the Rockies last August in Pittsburgh.

–Field Level Media