KANSAS CITY -- The seventh inning started with speed and small ball. It ended with a power punch from Royals captain Salvador Perez.

And Kansas City showed nearly everything its offense is capable of doing in a matter of 15 minutes with a six-run inning, turning a tight pitching duel into an emphatic 7-1 series-opening win over the Rangers on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium.

“This offense,” starter Brady Singer, who allowed one run in six innings with eight strikeouts, said with a grin. “Never had a doubt that we were going to break through and get those runs. It’s a blast to watch.

“This team is so much fun to be around. We’re never out of it.”

Friday was the sixth game this year the Royals have scored six or more runs in one inning, but in order to get there, they needed Texas starter Michael Lorenzen out of the game. He kept them off balance through six innings and allowed seven baserunners, including a game-tying solo homer from Hunter Renfroe in the fifth inning.

But when Texas turned to its bullpen, the Royals were ready. Royals outfielder MJ Melendez led off the seventh trying to snap an 0-for-27 skid. He got to two strikes against reliever Cole Winn but fouled off two consecutive fastballs before taking a splitter in the dirt.

Melendez then saw a fastball down in the zone and shot it through the right-side gap.

“That whole inning changes when MJ was at two strikes and hit a ground ball that went through,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Just getting into the at-bat, the guys start to know, like, ‘All right, we’ve got to do something here.’”

“Just trying to do anything I could to get on base,” Melendez added. “... A long stretch going without getting a hit is not fun. The winning makes it easier. But just trying not to press too much.”

Pinch-runner Dairon Blanco’s speed once again changed the game. He executed a delayed steal to get into scoring position for Kyle Isbel, who brought him home with the go-ahead single up the middle.

Then the Royals found a groove, with three consecutive singles from the top of their lineup. Perez, continuing his sizzling April, wasted no time crushing his eighth home run of the year, a loud three-run shot into the visiting bullpen.

The 25,690 fans at The K rewarded the longest-tenured Royal with a curtain call.

“Pretty special,” Perez said. “I appreciate the fans in Kansas City. Thank you for coming to support us. We’re going to play hard every night. We’re going to try to do our best to get back in the playoffs.”

The energy was palpable all night. It started with the pitching. Singer didn’t walk or hit a batter, and while he battled a high pitch count with long at-bats, he was able to put them away for the most part.

In the second, Singer won a 10-pitch at-bat with Travis Jankowski by striking him out swinging on a sinker. In the third, Singer struck Nathaniel Lowe out swinging on a sweeper, which Singer said he worked on over the past week with assistant pitching coach Zach Bove to get more horizontal break on the pitch. Some of the lower-80s sliders Singer threw were sweepers.

“The fact that [the swing and miss] kept going gave us the confidence to send him back out there for the sixth,” Quatraro said. “He looked just as sharp in the sixth as he had earlier.”

Singer got through the middle of the Rangers’ order in the sixth, ending the frame by striking out Adolis García with a slider for the eighth pitch of the at-bat and Singer’s 105th pitch of the night.

Singer let out a yell and a double-fist pump when walking off the mound -- which is about as fired up as we’ve seen Singer in his Major League career.

“I didn’t want to walk him because I’d be out of the game,” Singer said. “I stuck with my best pitch, what I felt comfortable with. I threw a quality pitch in the zone. I was going to take whatever happens. I’d rather go down swinging than walking him.”

Reliever John Schreiber followed with his own amped-up yell after he loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the seventh and got out of it with a strikeout to Marcus Semien to keep the game tied.

The offense took it from there.

“They give everything they have,” Perez said of Royals pitchers. “To give us the opportunity to score some runs and win some games.”