Matt Garza decided it was time to stop thinking and start doing.

Garza pitched eight impressive innings for his first victory in six starts and the Texas Rangers kept close in the playoff race, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-1 Saturday night.

The Rangers won for only the fifth time in 19 September games to remain a half-game behind Cleveland for the second AL wild-card berth.

The Royals, out of the playoffs since winning the 1985 World Series, dropped 3 1/2 games in back of the Indians.

Adrian Beltre got two hits and drove in a run for Texas.

Garza (10-6) was 0-3 with an 8.22 ERA in his first three September starts. He pitched four-hit ball before giving up Eric Hosmer’s leadoff home run in the ninth and getting pulled.

”You’re the only one who can do it,” Garza said. ”You’re the one who has to wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror. I wasn’t happy with what I saw. I just got back to being comfortable, back to being who was I was. It’s a lot funnier this way. I can enjoy it a little more.”

The plan Garza and catcher A.J. Pierzynski had was to keep it unsophisticated.

”He tried to keep it simpler,” Pierzynski said after Garza gave up nine runs on 13 hits and six walks in 8 1-3 innings in his previous two starts. ”He talked about an overload of information. We do a great job here of scouting reports. Matt is a simple guy. He wants to know the basics. I think sometimes when you give him too much, I think he overthinks himself.

”I think he tried to keep it simple today and be as aggressive as he can. We talked between starts and he executed to perfection except for obviously that home run.”

The simple method worked for Garza.

”I was trying to do too much,” Garza said. ”I’ve just got to keep it simple. That’s kind of been my whole thing and it’s kind of who I am. I just went out there with a game-plan of attack, trust my stuff and let’s go. It’s no time to work on anything anymore. Let’s go and it felt good.”

Garza struck out five and walked one. He is 4-5 in 12 starts since the Rangers acquired him on July 22 in a trade with the Chicago Cubs.

”We were a little more than off-balance,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”He was really good. He was really pounding the strike zone. He threw, I think, 70 strikes and 27 balls. He had a good fastball, a really good slider and a good chase pitch. He was ahead all night. He pitched a really good game.”

After Hosmer’s 17th homer, Joe Nathan relieved. The Texas closer struck out two for his 40th save in 43 chances. Nathan posted his 41st career save against the Royals.

Jeremy Guthrie (14-12) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. He has permitted six runs and 20 hits in 14 innings in losing his past two starts.

Beltre’s .374 career batting average at Kauffman Stadium is the highest for an opposing batter with at least 150 plate appearances.

Guthrie gave up a triple to Ian Kinsler to lead off the game. Kinsler scored on Elvis Andrus’ groundout.

In the third, Guthrie’s control betrayed him when he walked Andrus and Alex Rios on eight pitches, and both scored.

Beltre bounced an RBI single up the middle and Pierzynski had a sacrifice fly.

”If I get that ball (Beltre’s single) maybe we get that double play and we’re still playing,” Royals second baseman Emilio Bonifacio said.

The Royals had only one batter get past second base before Hosmer’s homer. Jarrod Dyson tripled with two out in the fifth, but was stranded when Alcides Escobar looked at a called third strike.

— Associated Press —

Alcides Escobar was going to take the first pitch that Neftali Feliz threw him, no matter what. After that, the Royals shortstop decided to keep taking pitches until he saw a strike.

Turns out he never got to see one.

Escobar walked on four pitches with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning Friday night, giving Kansas City a 2-1 victory over the Texas Rangers in the opener of an important three-game series between teams in the playoff race.

”We had the utmost confidence he was going to get it done right there and he had a great at-bat,” said Royals manager Ned Yost, who chose to stick with Escobar despite his .238 batting average and the fact that he had walked just 18 times in more than 600 plate appearances.

Make that 19 times.

”I’m frustrated that I wasn’t able to locate where I wanted to, but I understand that’s part of the game,” Feliz said. ”I need to keep my head up and try it again tomorrow.”

The Rangers dropped a half-game behind the Indians, which beat Houston 2-1 in a rain-shortened game, for the second AL wild-card spot. The Royals were three games behind the leading Rays, who were locked in an extra-inning game with the Orioles.

”These games are all going to be like this,” said Yost, whose Royals (81-72) are already assured of their first non-losing season since 2003. ”They’re all going to be nail-biters. They’re all going to be close.”

This one was so close the Rangers and Royals scored matching runs in the second inning, and then started tossing up zeros the rest of the way.

The Royals finally broke through when Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas hit consecutive two-out singles off the Rangers’ Jason Frasor (4-3) in the eighth. Pinch-hitter David Lough drew a walk on a full-count pitch, and Rangers manager Ron Washington brought in Feliz.

He promptly walked Escobar as a crowd of 30,000 roared.

Luke Hochevar (5-2) earned the win in relief of Ervin Santana, who allowed one run on five hits in 7 1-3 innings. Greg Holland worked the ninth for his 44th save.

”It stinks when you get taken out and you’ve got to rely on someone else. It’s hard to sit there and watch,” Frasor said. ”It’s a tough spot for Neftali.”

The Rangers actually jumped out to an early lead when Adrian Beltre, whose .374 average coming into the game was the best of any current player at Kauffman Stadium, roped a single to lead off the second. It was followed by a double by A.J. Pierzynski for a 1-0 advantage.

The Royals answered in the bottom half when Salvador Perez led off with a double and Justin Maxwell, getting the start in right field, hit a two-out double to tie the game.

Kansas City kept wasting chances in the early innings, though.

Billy Butler grounded into a double play to end the first, and Moustakas grounded into another in the second. The Royals worked back-to-back walks in the fourth before Escobar flied out to center field to end yet another scoring threat.

The most egregious mistake came in the sixth, when Maxwell walked and Escobar was hit by a pitch from Rangers starter Martin Perez. Maxwell took off for third base with Alex Gordon at the plate, and he was easily thrown out by catcher Geovany Soto to end the inning.

Asked whether he was running on his own, Yost replied: ”Yeah.” Good idea? ”Nope.”

None of those jams was as tight as the one Santana worked out of in the fifth.

After retiring the first two batters, David Murphy doubled, Leonys Martin singled and Ian Kinsler drew a walk to load the bases. Santana recovered to strike out Elvis Andrus.

The Rangers had another opportunity in the eighth, but Hochever got Andrus to fly out to left and Alex Rios to ground out to first to leave Kinsler standing on first base.

”Every game is so big, and that’s what makes it fun,” Hochevar said. ”The intensity, the electricity in the ballpark that we’ve had during this push, it’s been awesome.”

— Associated Press —