Marcus Semien homered and drove in four runs, Jon Gray pitched seven effective innings and the Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 8-3 on Tuesday night.

Corey Seager hit a two-run double as the Rangers handed last-place Kansas City its fourth consecutive defeat. They’ve outscored the Royals 18-7 in the first two games of the series.

Semien had three hits and scored three times. His three-run homer off starter Jonathan Heasley made it 4-0 in the third.

Gray (4-3) matched his longest outing of the season. He allowed one run and five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. The right-hander managed only one 1-2-3 inning, but kept working out of trouble and let only two runners reach second base.

Heasley (1-4) gave up seven runs and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Bobby Witt Jr. had an RBI single. Kyle Isbel launched his second career home run and first this season for Kansas City, and Andrew Benintendi had a sacrifice fly.

UP NEXT

The finale of the three-game series is Wednesday afternoon. RHP Dane Dunning (1-5, 4.17 ERA) pitches for Texas against RHP Zack Greinke (1-4, 4.68). Pregame begins at 12:30, with game time at 1:10. You can hear the broadcast from the Royals’ Radio Network on KMMO AM 1300.