Most of the time, when you put up two runs in the first inning against one of the league’s best pitchers and go on to have a 12-hit night, you feel pretty good about your chances to win a ballgame.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, that is exactly what happened, and still they found the short end of the stick in a 6-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Globe Life Field on Wednesday night.

Texas got started quickly against Kansas City starter Kris Bubic, who entered play today with a season ERA of 1.92, as they took a 1-0 lead just two batters into the game after a leadoff triple from Sam Haggerty and an RBI double from Wyatt Langford.

Later in the inning, Adolis Garcia flipped a full-count two-out RBI single into center to score Langford and double the Rangers lead.

It didn’t take long for Kansas City to get those runs back against Texas starter Patrick Corbin, who allowed a three-run home run to Royals 3rd baseman Maikel Garcia as part of a four-run third inning.

“I think overall, just fell behind, got in some deep counts [and] some bad counts,” Corbin said when talking about the inning.

“Kinda didn’t really get in a great rhythm today. It was good to get those last two in [scoreless 4th and 5th innings] and put up a couple zeros to give us a chance to win but just made a couple mistakes and got in some bad counts, had to be a little more aggressive in the zone; I didn’t really locate early trying to get ahead of guys but give them credit for being patient”.

The Rangers were able to tack on one more in the 4th thanks to back-to-back doubles from Josh Jung and Jake Burger, but unfortunately, that was all the Rangers would get.

Texas left nine men on base, failing to pick up the one big hit they needed, a sentiment that Rangers manager Bruce Bochy echoed after the game.

“I thought we had some good at-bats,” Bochy said. “We hit some balls hard; We had chances to tack on or find a way to get some runs there, just missed that one big hit, but we had some good at-bats tonight, that’s a tough one to come away with three runs when you get six extra base hits”.