The Houston Astros faced off against the AL-best Kansas City Royals. The Astros defeated the New York Yankees in the AL Wildcard game by a final score of 3-0, their first playoff win since shifting to the AL. The Kansas City Royals were looking for vengeance after being defeated in the World Series just a season ago.
After using their ace Dallas Keuchel in the Wildcard match up, the Houston Astros put their faith in Collin McHugh, who finished the season the season with a 19-7 record and a 3.89 record. Tonight would be a similar story for McHugh, pitching 6 innings, allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits.
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For Kansas City, Yordano Ventura would get the start over Johnny Cueto, a move that would later be questioned. Ventura would be knocked around early, pitching only 2 innings where he allowed 3 earned runs on 4 hits.
The scoring would begin in the first inning, when the Houston Astros loaded the bases for Colby Rasmus. Rasmus would ground out to second, scoring Jose Altuve from third and moving Carlos Correa and George Springer to second and third respectively.
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It wouldn’t take long for the Astros to pad their lead when the next batter, Evan Gattis grounded out to the shortstop, scoring Springer. The run gave the Astros a 2-0 lead, providing some question to whether Ventura’s day would be long lived.
The Astros would extend their lead once again in the top of the 2nd. Following a Jake Marisnick double to left center, Jose Altuve would single to right, scoring Marisnick with Altuve taking second on the throw.
Ventura would get Springer to groundout to end the inning, but his day would be short lived. There was a 49-minute rain delay after the second inning, prompting manager Ned Yost to replace Ventura with Chris Young.
The Royals shortened the lead back to two in the bottom of the second when Kendrys Morales hit a 372 foot home run to right field. The home run was the first major blemish on McHugh’s track record today.
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Morales would hit his second home run in the bottom of the fourth. The home run was measured as 414 feet and it was only the third hit the Royals were able to muster against McHugh and the Astros.
In the top of the fifth inning, Altuve would begin the inning with a single to right center field. Altuve would eventually try to steal second but would be gunned out by Salvador Perez.
During the same at-bat, Springer would get his first hit on the game, homering 395 feet to right field that gave the Astros some breathing room with a two run lead.
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The Astros would continue to threaten the Royals when Chris Carter singled and moved Luis Valbuena to second. Young would get out of the inning when Jason Castro grounded into a 4-6-3 inning, ending any threat to the Royals.
The Astros would put the final nail in the coffin in the top of the eighth inning when Colby Rasmus homered off of Ryan Madson, giving the Astros a 5-2 lead late in the game.
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Evan Gattis would single on the next at bat, but Madson struck out the next three batters, ending any threat.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Royals would get Lorenzo Cain to first and Ben Zobrist to second with Eric Hosmer up. Hosmer would foul out to third, ending the inning and giving the Royals one final chance to win the game.
In the bottom of the ninth, Luke Gregerson would come in for the Astros with hopes of closing the game and giving the Astros the 1-0 lead in the ALDS.
Morales would start the inning with a strikeout on three pitches, strengthening the chances of the Astros of walking out of Kansas City with a win.
Gregerson would hit Mike Moustakas on the second pitch, giving the Royals a glimmer of hope in the late stages of the game.
To end the game, Gregerson would strike out Salvador Perez and force Alex Gordon to foul out to left field.
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ALDS Game 2 (Astros lead 1-0)
Game 2 of the ALDS will take place tomorrow at 3:45 pm EDT. The Astros will send Scott Kazmir up against Johnny Cueto of the Kansas City Royals. Kazmir was an in-season pick up from the Oakland Atheletics. Cueto was a trade deadline pick up from the Cincinatti Reds and has since shored up the rotation for the Royals.
