(Sports Network) - Kevin Millwood tries to win his third straight start this evening when the Texas Rangers begin a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

Millwood won his second start since coming off the disabled list on Thursday against Cleveland, as he surrendered four runs and nine hits in six innings of a 9-4 win. He also struck out six without walking a batter.

The 33-year-old right-hander, who has pitched to a 4.65 earned run average this season, last won three consecutive starts back in 2002 en route to an 18- win campaign with the Atlanta Braves.

Millwood defeated the Royals earlier in the season and is 5-3 lifetime against them with a 4.96 ERA.

Texas enters this series after dropping two of three over the weekend to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rangers, though, salvaged the finale of the set on Sunday, as David Murphy, German Duran and Ramon Vazquez all homered, lifting Texas to a 6-3 win.

Doug Mathis (2-1) allowed five hits and two runs in 5 1/3 innings to take the win for Texas. Gerald Laird and Marlon Byrd also knocked in a run each for the Rangers, who will be starting a six-game road trip tonight.

Texas is 15-17 away from home on the year.

Kansas City, meanwhile, split its four-game set over the weekend with the New York Yankees, winning Monday's finale in dramatic fashion, as Jose Guillen capped a terrific weekend by snapping a ninth-inning tie with a solo homer off Mariano Rivera, helping the Royals to a 3-2 win at Yankee Stadium

Guillen lifted an 0-2 Rivera offering just over the wall in left field for his 11th home run of the season. He was 2-for-4 on Monday and finished the four- game set 9-for-16 with three homers and 10 runs batted in.

The Yankees had the bases loaded in their half of the ninth, but Joakim Soria got out of the jam and recorded his 14th save in the process. Yasuhiko Yabuta (1-0) earned the win after getting the last out of the eighth.

Kansas City got a huge effort from starter Luke Hochevar, who was charged with two runs on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks in six-plus innings.

The Royals will hope for a similar effort tonight from righty Gil Meche, who tries for his first win in his last four decisions. Meche was tagged with the loss on Thursday in Chicago, as the White Sox battered him for five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings, dropping him to 3-8 on the season, while raising his ERA to 5.54.

Meche has faced the Rangers 14 times (13 starts) and is 4-8 against them with a 6.68 ERA.

Texas took two of three from the Royals earlier in the season.