Kansas City’s bullpen failed to hold a lead for starter Kyle Davies as the Texas Rangers came from behind to beat the Royals 5-3 Tuesday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The Royals led 3-1 after 5 ½ innings, but the Rangers scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 6 th to take the lead they would never give up. Three of those runs came on Gerald Laird’s 7 th home run of the season off reliever David Riske. It was the Rangers’ second roundtripper on the night as Michael Young had hit a solo shot in the 4 th .

Davies (5-9) took the loss, allowing 4 earned runs on 8 hits in 5-plus innings. Kevin Millwood (8-9) pitched 7 innings for the win, surrendering 3 runs, 1 of them earned, on 4 hits. C.J. Wilson tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his 5 th save.

The second game of the series goes Wednesday night in Arlington. The Royals (52-66) send Gil Meche (7-10) to the mound against Vicente Padilla (3-8) for the Rangers (52-66).