<table> </table> Credit the Royals with creativity in their continuing collapse. Head-shaking creativity, to be sure; stuff sure to serve as stock footage in blooper reels for years to come.</p><p>Stuff like Wednesday&#8217;s 3-2 loss to the Texas Rangers at Kauffman Stadium.</p><p>The Rangers scored the winning run with two outs in the seventh inning when Royals pitcher Brian Bannister dropped a soft pop-up by Joaquin Arias &#8212; and failed to recover in time to prevent Jarrod Saltalamacchia from scoring from second base.</p><p>Note that it takes less time to say Jarrod Saltalamacchia a few dozen times than it did for him to score from second base.</p><p>&#8220;You close your glove, and it&#8217;s not in there,&#8221; Bannister said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t remember the last time I caught a pop-up. It was a weird pop-up, too. It came right off his hands. It was like a cue ball. It hit, and it didn&#8217;t stick.&#8221;</p><p>It torpedoed Bannister&#8217;s best performance &#8212; and only &#8220;quality&#8221; start &#8212; since June 23, when he posted his last victory by beating Colorado 8-4. He struck out a career-high eight in his 6 2/3 innings.</p><p>Hard to get past that dropped pop, though.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;d rather have a guy get a hit,&#8221; Bannister admitted, &#8220;than lose a game that way.&#8221;</p><p>The error allowed Texas to complete its first three-game sweep of the season and the first three-game sweep in franchise history in Kansas City.</p><p>That KC drought included games at Municipal Stadium and when the Rangers were still based in Washington and known as the Senators. A long time, then.</p><p>Remember, too, that Texas entered the series with 14 losses in its 17 previous games.</p><p>But Matt Harrison, who began the game with a 6.27 ERA, produced the Rangers&#8217; third straight &#8220;quality&#8221; start &#8212; a first for Texas since early April. Scott Feldman and Kevin Millwood stymied the Royals in the two previous games.</p><p>&#8220;It seems like when you attack this team, good things happen,&#8221; Harrison said. &#8220;So I just took the same approach they did. Use strike one, get ahead of guys.&#8221;</p><p>Harrison, 6-3, allowed two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings and, if not for some sloppy defense, would have been working on a shutout when lifted with runners at first and second.</p><p>Texas relievers Joaquin Benoit, Jamey Wright and Frank Francisco combined to retire the final seven Royals. Francisco got his first career save.</p><p>&#8220;A lack of production when we should produce,&#8221; manager Trey Hillman said. &#8220;In the third inning, we have a runner on second with nobody out and we don&#8217;t get him home. In the fourth inning, runners on second and third with nobody out and we don&#8217;t get a run out of that.&#8221;</p><p>Bannister and the Royals still had a 2-1 lead with two outs in the seventh before successive doubles by Chris Davis and Saltalamacchia tied the game.</p><p>Arias then blooped an easy pop to the right of the mound. Bannister settled under the ball. And dropped it. Saltalamacchia kept running, waved on by third-base coach Matt Walbeck, and scored before Bannister gathered himself.</p><p>&#8220;(Walbeck) saw the ball was popped up,&#8221; Washington said, &#8220;and didn&#8217;t take it for granted that it would be caught. He kept the runner going. It worked out for us.&#8221;</p><p>The error sent the Royals to their 17th loss in 20 games. They are now three games worse than last year through 133 games and on pace to finish with 94 losses.</p><p>&#8220;What can go wrong next?&#8221; asked DH Billy Butler, who had two of the Royals&#8217; seven hits. &#8220;It seems we&#8217;re finding ways to lose games each day instead of finding ways to win games.&#8221;</p><p>Bannister lost his eighth straight decision and fell to 7-14.</p><p>The Royals opened the scoring for the first time since Aug. 20 when Mark Teahen scored from second on Esteban German&#8217;s double in the third inning. Brandon Boggs tied the game with a leadoff homer in the fourth, but the Royals surged ahead 2-1 on David DeJesus&#8217; RBI single in the fifth.</p><p>DeJesus&#8217; RBI was his 59th and marked a career high &#8212; one more than last season. Bannister nursed that lead into the seventh before things fell apart.</p><p>&#8220;The pop-up should have been caught,&#8221; Bannister said. &#8220;But that was kind of an afterthought for me. I needed to put away those two lefties in the seventh and didn&#8217;t do it.</p><p>&#8220;Tonight was just kind of the epitome of how this year has gone for me.&#8221;