ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) _ Brian Meadows won his fourth straight start and Jermaine Dye hit his 33rd homer as the Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers 8-5 on Saturday night.

Meadows, 6-2 with the Royals since he was acquired from San Diego on July 31, pitched into the eighth inning before Gabe Kapler hit the 100th pitch he threw for a three-run homer.

Before the three runs in the eighth, only two Texas runners had past second base against Meadows. Frank Catalanotto beat out an infield single and Royce Clayton doubled to set up Kapler's 13th homer.

Meadows allowed eight hits and four runs over 7 2-3 innings. He struck out one with no walks.

Dye, who became the fastest player in Kansas City history to 30 home runs on Aug. 20, hit only his third since on the first pitch of the fourth inning. That put Kansas City ahead 2-0. Gregg Zaun had homered an inning earlier.

The Royals took advantage of two walks and an error to score three runs in the sixth. They scored three more times in the seventh, aided by three walks.

Texas starter Brian Sikorski (1-3) struck out six through the first five innings, but was taken out after giving up a walk and a single to start the sixth.

After Dye walked and Joe Randa singled to start the sixth, Rangers reliever Jonathan Johnson walked Dee Brown to load the bases and then threw a wild pitch for a run. An error by first baseman Rafael Palmeiro allowed another run before Wilson Delgado's RBI single.

Sikorski, who allowed five hits and walked three, is winless in his four starts since making his debut in the majors with seven shutout innings against the New York Yankees in a 5-0 victory on Aug. 16.

Johnson hit a batter and walked another at the beginning of the seventh before Randa and Mark Quinn had consecutive RBI singles to chase him from the game and put the Royals up 7-1. Delgado later hit a sacrifice fly.

Texas scored in the sixth after Catalanotto led off with a single and later scored on Palmeiro's double.

After the Kapler homer that chased Meadows, Ricky Ledee greeted reliever Ricky Bottalico with a triple off the left-field wall and then scored on a wild pitch.

Notes: Meadows was 7-8 with a 5.24 ERA in 22 starts for San Diego. ... With a win, Kansas City moved its record to 69-80 and avoided falling to a season-worst 13 games below .500. ... Sikorski was making a spot start because the Rangers had to play a doubleheader last Tuesday and manager Johnny Oates didn't want to start Kenny Rogers on three days rest. Rogers (12-13) will pitch Sunday. ... Catalanotto had 17 hits in his previous 94 at-bats (.181) before consecutive singles.