Error opens door for Rangers’ victory over Royals, 10-5

? Juan Gonzalez helped the Texas Rangers win another game, even though he is now on a different team.

Gonzalez’s dropped fly ball in the first inning led to three unearned Texas runs, and the Rangers went on to beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-5, Friday.

Gonzalez signed with Texas when he was just 16, and spent 10 of his first 12 full seasons in the majors with the Rangers.

After two injury-plagued seasons in his return to Texas, he wasn’t offered a new contract. So he signed a $4.5 million, one-year deal with the Royals that includes a team option for 2005.

The three runs in the first came after two outs and without a hit. Donnie Bridges (0-1) walked two batters and hit another before Jason Tyner’s fly to right was dropped by Gonzalez. Every runner scored on the play, and Texas was ahead to stay.

“It’s been seven months since I played out there. The guy hit it off the end of the bat,” said Gonzalez, whose last game for the Rangers was July 19 because of a right calf injury. “It’s better now. It doesn’t count now.”

Gonzalez had a pair of RBI singles, one in the first and the other in the fifth to get the Royals within 6-3. He struck out swinging at a bad pitch his other at-bat.

Royals first baseman Mike Sweeney was scratched from Kansas City’s lineup after his wife went into labor with their first child. Sweeney, an All-Star the past four seasons, missed Thursday’s opener because of stiffness in his back.