Kansas City, Mo. ? Mike Sweeney found the hitting stroke that had eluded him for nearly a week.

But when Brian Anderson walked into the clubhouse Tuesday night, Sweeney nodded in his direction and said, “There’s your hero.”

A day after the Royals acquired him in a trade with Cleveland, Anderson — with plenty of support from Sweeney and Aaron Guiel — gave his new team six solid innings in a 9-2 win over the Texas Rangers.

“For him to come in and throw the ball like he did — that’s definitely a big emotional lift for our team,” said Sweeney, who went 3-for-5 after getting just one hit in his previous 13 at-bats. “If Brian can give us six more games like that, that will be just what we need.”

Sweeney and Guiel each homered and drove in four runs as the Royals stayed one game back of the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central.

Anderson (10-10) pitched six innings, allowing two runs and four hits. He struck out three and walked none.

“When you come to a new team, your main feeling is not wanting to screw up what they’ve got going — but that’s negative thinking,” Anderson said. “So you tell yourself you want to come in and do what you can to help.”

Anderson retired the first 11 batters before Alex Rodriguez singled with two outs in the fourth inning, and Rafael Palmeiro followed with a two-run homer to right field that cut Kansas City’s lead to 3-2.

Kansas City's Aaron Guiel (45) is congratulated by teammate Angel Berroa after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning. K.C. beat Texas, 9-2, Tuesday in Kansas City.

Jeremy Affeldt relieved Anderson to start the seventh, striking out five in two shutout innings, before Curtis Leskanic came in to pitch the ninth.

Guiel, whose four RBIs were a career high, went 3-for-5. He homered off starter R.A. Dickey (8-6) in Kansas City’s three-run third and ignited a six-run sixth with a two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded.

The homer came on a 3-0 count, when Dickey grooved a fastball — not knowing that Royals manager Tony Pena had told Guiel to swing away.

“I took it for granted that he was going to take a strike, and I threw a BP fastball in there,” Dickey said. “He did just what he should have done with it, if he was going to swing away. It took me totally by surprise.”

Sweeney had an RBI single in the third and capped the Royals’ big sixth with a three-run shot off Rosman Garcia.

“I probably took a thousand swings today trying to get back on track,” Sweeney said.

The Royals led 3-2 when Dickey opened the sixth by walking Raul Ibanez, giving up Ken Harvey’s bloop single and hitting Angel Berroa with a pitch to load the bases with one out.

Aaron Fultz relieved Dickey and struck out Brent Mayne, but Guiel chased him with his two-run single. Joe Randa singled off Garcia, driving in Berroa before Sweeney hit his first homer since June 16.

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Randa went 2-for-4, extending his hitting streak to nine games with a third-inning double. Berroa doubled twice and went 2-for-3.

Rodriguez and Einar Diaz had two hits each for Texas.

Notes: Palmeiro’s 521st career homer tied him for 13th on baseball’s list of leaders, along with Willie McCovey and Ted Williams. He has 38 home runs against the Royals, the most ever by any player. … Kansas City placed RHPs Runelvys Hernandez and Kevin Appier on the disabled list, both with elbow injuries. Hernandez (7-5) will need “Tommy John” surgery to replace a torn ligament and is not expected to return before the middle of next season. The Royals are still waiting to see whether Appier (1-2) will need surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon. … Jim Sundberg, the Rangers’ organizational catching coordinator, coached first base. DeMarlo Hale, the regular first base coach, is away from the team attending to personal matters.