American League Divisional Series
Houston Astros at Kansas City Royals
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The Astros and Royals met in Kansas City for a deciding Game 5. The winner would go on to face the Toronto Blue Jays, who won earlier in the day. The Astros sent Collin McHugh up against Johnny Cueto of the Royals. McHugh picked up the win in Game 1 by pitching six innings, giving up two runs on six hits, striking out one and walking one. Cueto did not have as much success in Game 2, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks, while striking out five, but the Royals were able to come back for the win.
The Astros opened the scoring in the top of the second inning. After Colby Rasmus struck out and Carlos Gomez flew out to left, Evan Gattis got an infield single. Luis Valbuena then hit the next pitch to right field for a two-run home run. Chris Carter flew out to right field to end the inning.
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The Royals got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Lorenzo Cain hit a one-out single to right. He was off and running when Eric Hosmer singled up the middle. Cain went to third, and was then waved home when Gomez slipped in center field, scoring all the way from first on the play. McHugh was able to get out of the inning with no further damage.
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Salvador Perez was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Alex Gordon followed that up with a ground rule double over George Springer’s head. The Astros elected to have Mike Fiers come in to face Alex Rios. Rios ripped one that barely stayed fair over the third base bag for a two-run double. Alcides Escobar bunted Rios over to third. Ben Zobrist hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Rios. Cain grounded out to Jose Altuve to end the inning, but not before the Royals took a 4-2 lead.
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Cueto shut the Astros down in the top of the six on just six pitches, for a total of 72 in the game. Tony Sipp came in to pitch the bottom of the sixth and only needed nine pitches to get through it.
Zobrist made an incredible leaping catch off of Carlos Correa’s bat for the first out of the seventh inning. He then struck out Rasmus and got Gomez to ground out to end the inning. Cueto was at 86 pitches through seven innings and he had retired 16 straight hitters.
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Cueto came back out for the eighth inning and got Gattis to pop out to second. Valbuena grounded out to second for the second out. Carter grounded out to short, and Cueto got through the eighth inning on just five pitches. He was up to 91 pitches, and 19 consecutive batters retired. The last batter to reach was Valbuena when he hit his home run in the second inning.
Dallas Keuchel came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth. Escobar greeted him with a double to the right field corner that just went over the first base bag. Zobrist lined out to second base for the first out. The Astros elected to intentionally walk Cain to bring up Hosmer and a possible double play. Hosmer popped out to the catcher for the second out. Kendrys Morales hit a 2-2 slider over the fence in center field for a three-run home run and a 7-2 lead. Keuchel finally got Mike Moustakas to ground out to short to end the inning.
The Astros came up in the ninth inning needing five runs just to tie the game. Wade Davis came in for the Royals to close out the game. He got Preston Tucker to strike out swinging and Altuve to ground out to short. Springer came up as the Astros last hope. He hit a drive to right field that took Paulo Orlando to the wall, but Orlando was able to make the catch.
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They Royals won the game and the series. They retired 22 batters in a row after giving up a two-run home run in the second inning. They scored seven unanswered runs, including a three-run home run by Morales in the eighth for some insurance.
Player of the Game: Johnny Cueto
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Cueto went eight innings, giving up two runs on two hits while striking out eight. Aside from the two-out single and home run in the second inning, he did not allow a single base runner.
American League Championship Series
The Royals will host the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday for Game 1 of the ALCS on Friday at 7:30 pm. The Royals are looking to get into the World Series for the second year in a row. The Blue Jays have not been to the World Series since they won back-to-back in 1992-93.