KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Delino DeShields is known for his speed, stealing 101 bases in 2012 in the minors, not for his power.DeShields homered in the seventh inning to break a tie and the Texas Rangers defeated the Kansas City Royals 2-1 on Sunday.DeShields, who was recalled Thursday from Triple-A Round Rock, walked and doubled before leading off the seventh with his third home run. DeShields hit a 2-1 pitch from Luke Hochevar out to left.It so happened that today I was the guy that got us the go-ahead run, DeShields said. I was just trying to hit the ball hard. I wasnt looking for anything specific. I wanted to get on base. Before I had gotten on base in every at-bat.With the game tied and if I get myself in scoring position, theres a good chance for me to touch home plate. I got into it pretty good and got it over the fence, but the main focus was just putting the barrel on the ball and try to get on base.The loss dropped the Royals to 48-49, the first time the World Series champions have been below .500 since May 15 when they were 18-19. The Royals have lost 13 of 19 games in July.Left-hander Alex Claudio (2-1) picked up the win, pitching a scoreless sixth.Hochevar (2-3) took the loss and has allowed six runs in 6 1/3 innings in July.It was a four-seam fastball and it just took off and ran back over the plate, Hochevar said of DeShields home run. Trying to go down and away with that and it just ran middle.Rangers relievers Claudio, Keone Kela, Jake Diekman and Sam Dyson held the Royals scoreless the final four innings.Dyson earned his 20th save in 22 opportunities, but not before allowing two singles and taking Paulo Orlandos liner off his right shoulder.After stranding runners at third base in the third, fourth and fifth innings, the Rangers broke through with a clutch hit in the sixth when Mitch Morelands two-out single scored Adrian Beltre, who began the inning with a single.Royals starter Edinson Volquez left after six innings and 91 pitches, allowing one run and seven hits, while walking three and striking out three. It was Volquezs fifth straight start pitching at least six innings and he has a 2.87 ERA in that span.There were scouts watching Volquez, who is eligible for free agency after this season and could be traded at the deadline.He pitched in and out of trouble all day long, a fantastic job, Royals manager Ned Yost said.Rangers right-hander A.J. Griffin left after allowing four hits in five innings, including Kendrys Morales home run in the fourth inning. Morales had three of the Royals seven hits.I tried to keep them off balance as well as I could, Griffin said. Its a good team win. Delino had a great day. I think it was good step forward for the whole team and something to build on.The Rangers won back-to-back games for the first time since June 27-28.PEREZ RESTEDC Salvador Perez was not in the Royals lineup for the first time since July 3 with Drew Butera behind the plate with a day game after a night game. Perez was in a 2-for-23 skid with eight strikeouts and no walks over six games before delivering a pinch single in the ninth.RETURNING HOMEThe Rangers wrapped up a nine-game, 10-day trip Sunday and play their next seven at Globe Life Park. They have played only four home games in the past 28 days from June 27 to July 24.RANGERS SIGN BRESLOWLeft-hander Craig Breslow, who was released Monday by the Marlins, has signed a minor league contract with the Rangers and assigned to Triple-A Round Rock. Breslow, 35, is 22-29 with a 3.35 ERA in 539 games in the majors with San Diego, Boston, Cleveland, Minnesota, Oakland, Arizona and Miami.TRAINERS ROOMRangers: General manager Jon Daniels said he anticipates LHP Derek Holland and RHP Colby Lewis will return to the rotation on Aug. 20 and 21, the dates they are eligible to come off the 60-day disabled list.Royals: OF Lorenzo Cain (left hamstring strain) ran before the game. Hes making progress, Royals manager Ned Yost said. Well evaluate it tomorrow.UP NEXTRangers: LHP Martin Perez, who has lost his past three starts, will start against the Athletics at Arlington.Royals: RHP Ian Kennedy, who starts the series opener against the Angels, allowed four home runs in a Wednesday loss to the Indians and is tied with teammate Chris Young in allowing a major league-high 26 homers.Mike Shawaryn Red Sox Jersey .H. -- Matt Kenseth made it 2 for 2 in the Chase, holding off teammate Kyle Busch to win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Ryan Weber Red Sox Jersey . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. https://www.cheapredsox.com/ . The news was first reported on Gonzalezs Twitter account and confirmed by the Rockies. Gonzalez has a six-week window before position players have their first workout at spring training in Arizona. Juan Centeno Jersey . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. Ted Williams Red Sox Jersey . Burke is expected to miss two to three months after breaking a finger in the teams third preseason game. Tinsley, a 10-year veteran, spent the last two seasons in Utah, where the point guard averaged 3.TORONTO -- After only two games at the shiny new 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Team USA has no hope of advancing beyond the three-game preliminary round.No hope.Now theres a notion that resonates in the aftermath of its soul-sucking 4-2 loss to host Canada on Tuesday night. Two straight uninspired losses have opened up the team and the process by which it was selected to widespread ridicule.I dont worry about that stuff, U.S. defenseman Ryan Suter, near tears, said after the loss. I worry about the guys in the room. I think were all disappointed. I feel like we let our country down. We let ourselves down. Its just disappointing. You come into this not knowing how many more chances youre going to get, and to be out after two games is extremely disappointing.Team USA didnt come to Toronto as a favorite in this tournament, but did anyone expect it would exit so meekly?Certainly not GM Dean Lombardi and his management team that went off the grid in avoiding high-skill players in favor of players with character, grit, leadership.Through two games, the Americans displayed very few of those qualities.They have scored only two goals and held a lead for exactly 1 minute, 30 seconds.So, was this about picking the wrong players?Or the wrong coach?Or both?One of the most humbling parts of this debacle is that ostensibly this U.S. team was built to face down the international giant that is Canada. The Americans knew they couldnt match them skill for skill, so they hoped to beat them with truculence, a favored term of Brian Burke, who built such a team in 2010 that earned a silver medal (losing in overtime to Canada in an epic gold-medal game).But if that was the case, why was Brandon Dubinsky not in the lineup against Canada on Tuesday? A longtime foil of Canadian captain Sidney Crosby, there seemed to be no reason for Dubinsky to be on this team if he wasnt going to play against Canada.Better to have scorers Phil Kessel, Tyler Johnson or Kyle Okposo.And what of Dustin Byfuglien, the big Winnipeg Jets defenseman who was a healthy scratch from the first game, a 3-0 loss to lightly regarded Team Europe that put the U.S. in a must-win position Tuesday night? His play Tuesday explained in part why he was scratched, as he lost track of Matt Duchene, allowing the Canadian forward to tie the score less than two minutes after Ryan McDonagh had scored the Americans first goal of the tournament.There have always been risk and reward issues with Byfuglien, and yet he was among the first 16 players named last March, presumably to provide offense and a physical presence.And yet its as though there was as disconnect between the coaching staff and the management team as to how this team was supposed to come together. When the team went 0-for-4 on the power play in the first game, it seemed that Byfugliens absence was a problem.Then when he was on the ice, his presence was a problem.Better to have had defensemen Justin Faulk or Kevin Shattenkirk or Cam Fowler, all of whom played in Sochi? The answer now seems unequivocally yes.Even the goaltending choice seemed to have been misguided.Jonathan Quick was stellar in the teams first pre-touurnament game against Canada, which assured him the job, even though he was only ordinary against the San Jose Sharks in a first-round playoff loss last spring, while the Tampa Bay Lightnings Ben Bishop led his team to the 2015 Stanley Cup finals and then the Eastern Conference finals last season and has a .dddddddddddd927 save percentage over the past two playoff years.Not that Quick had much help, but at one point Tuesday hed allowed three goals on six Canadian shots.Up front, bringing Johnson, a proven playoff performer, would have allowed captain Joe Pavelski to stay on the wing, where he has had tremendous success for the Sharks.But what is undeniable is that the players who were in Toronto simply werent good enough.Defending scoring champ Patrick Kane continued his struggles offensively in these best-on-best tournaments, going without a goal in two games. He did not score at all in Sochi.He seemed unsure of himself, passing up a glorious chance to shoot on a 3-on-1 in the second period, the U.S. trailing 3-1, to make a pass that went awry.I obviously didnt do my job this tournament and produce offense and help create goals for the team, Kane said.Was it the winger or was he never put in a position to succeed?USA coach John Tortorella never found the right combination of players to unleash Kanes magnificent skill. He tried Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who has had a dreadful tournament, as well as James van Riemsdyk and others.Certainly Tortorella is a lightning rod for the significant discontent with the American collapse. When he was named head coach, he was between jobs and the feeling was that his emotion would serve Team USA well in a short tournament with so little margin for error.But shortly after being named to the post, Tortorella got the head coaching job with the Columbus Blue Jackets.The strange thing is that Tortorella had a top-notch coaching staff working with him, including Mike Sullivan, who is coming off a Stanley Cup win with the Pittsburgh Penguins?in June, and yet this team never found any kind of rhythm.Even small things, like not pulling Quick in the third period when the U.S. was trailing by three but went on a power play.Yeah, its disappointing, frustrating, Tortorella said of the teams performance thus far. All different types of emotions. Yeah, I think we let some people down. Its on my watch. I certainly feel responsible for that. So yeah, its really disappointing.And heres the thing, as the Americans contemplate a final meaningless preliminary round game with the Czech Republic on Thursday (8 p.m., ESPN2).Everything was tilted the Americans way at this tournament to give them the best chance of success.They were slotted in the softest of the two World Cup of Hockey pools with lesser hockey lights Team Europe and the Czech Republic. They didnt have to play back-to-back games. They got two days off to prepare for Canada.But whatever breaks had been given them were not nearly enough to overcome the myriad flaws this team possesses. ' ' '