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On a night highlighted by the return of Zack Greinke to Houston for the first time since leaving the club this past winter, it was the hitting that told the story of the ballgame as both Greinke and Luis Garcia struggled early in their starts.
For Garcia, his night could not have gotten off to a worse start following a leadoff single on the first pitch of the game from the Royals Whit Merrifield. Bobby Whit Jr. would bring Merrifield home for the first run of the game. Kansas City would add on in the second and third inning, the biggest blow coming on a two-run blast from Whitt Jr. in the third.
The Astros bats were not quiet themselves as they had Greinke dodging trouble early and often. Houston would manufacture two runs in the second thanks to a Yuli Gurriel groundout and a Kyle Tucker sacrifice fly. Houston would add another in the fourth off of Greinke as Jake Meyers laced a clutch two out single to center to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Shrugging off his early struggles, Garcia would settle in and work deep into the game. The Houston offense would back him up thanks to the twelfth home run of the season to tie the game at four. The rookie would be one upped by a vet just a couple hitters later as Alex Bregman crushed his tenth of the season to put Houston in front, ending Zack Greinke’s return to Houston after five innings of six run ball.
The Royals were handed a gift in the seventh inning as Kyle Tucker made a rare error, on the first batter of the inning, one that led to Kyle Isbel making it all the way to third. After the inning concluded the official scorer changed the ruling, calling the error a triple for Lopez. Garcia would get one more out before being pulled following the run scoring single off the bat of Nicky Lopez. Overall he settled nicely after the rough start, only being charged with five runs over six and a third innings on the night.
In what has been a season of struggles for Aledmys Diaz, the Royals appeared to be willing to play the role of slumpbuster for him on this summer night. Diaz reached base three times in the game, falling a triple shy of the cycle, just like his teammate Alex Bregman. For Diaz, his biggest blow of the night came in the seventh as he crushed his sixth home run of the season, extending the Astros lead back out to three at 8-5.
It has been rare to see the Astros use Bryan Abreu in a setup situation that will lead to a save on the night, but that was the call that Dusty Baker made on Tuesday, calling on Abreu with a three run lead in the eighth. Following a hit by, it looked like Abreu would get out of the inning thanks to a 6-4-3 double play. The Royals would challenge both the outs at second base and first base, with both being overturned. Jose Altuve would be charged with an error for not stepping on second base in that botched double play. Abreu would go on to walk the bases loaded before issuing another walk to bring home a run. Phil Maton got the call from the bullpen and was saved by a brilliant throw from left Yordan Alvarez to end the inning on a tremendous double play.
Yordan would not wait long for his next heroics in the game, crushing another homer, a day after smacking the walk-off shot against this Kansas City club. His twenty fifth blast of the season continues to keep him close to the league lead, as he is pacing for a season that would break Jeff Bagwell’s club record for home runs in a season. Bagwell crushed a whopping forty seven of them back in the 2000 season.
Rafael Montero would allow a run in the ninth, but the Astros would hold on by a final score of 9-7, securing win number fifty three of the season and their eight straight win overall. The club will look to secure the series win tomorrow evening in game three of this four game series. Cristian Javier will toe the rubber for Houston opposite Brad Keller for Kansas City. You can join me before the at six tomorrow evening for the Astros On Deck Show on SportsTalk 790.