The Stros logged five hits and five walks with Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez slamming solo homers while Jose Altuve singling in pinch runner Jonathan Villar.The Astros open the ALDS at Kansas City with Collin McHugh on the mound who faced the Royals once in 2014.
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But the Royals did win two out of three games played at Kauffman Stadium.
Yost was still considering the rest of his playoff roster Tuesday, though he did say it would not depend on whether New York or Houston wins the AL wild-card game. Keuchel threw six dominant innings on three days’ rest, and three Houston relievers followed with one hitless inning apiece. 337 at Kauffman Stadium. The series in Kansas City was right after the Alex Gordon injury and was the beginning of one of the worst stretches of the season for the Royals.
The Kansas City Royals have reached the American League Divisional Series for the second straight season.
But the 31-year-old Kazmir wasn’t almost as effective for the Astros as he was for the A’s, going 2-6 with a 4.17 ERA in 13 starts. The club had nine strikeouts against the Yankees on Tuesday. He will face the Astros lineup for the first time this season, and he pitch in the postseason for the first time since allowing four earned runs in 3 1/3 innings for the Reds the 2013 NL Wild Card Game.
“We had a good run last year, but that was last year”, Moustakas said.
Once Cueto was acquired, most thought he would be the Royals’ playoff ace.
The Houston Astros vs Kansas City Royals Game 1 on Thursday is the second ALDS game televised on Fox Sports 1 and live streamed on Fox Sports Go.
Now, the long-suffering Astros will try to accomplish what the once-beleaguered Royals did by building on their wild-card victory over the Yankees.
Ventura is a promising offering in tonight matchup against McHugh and the Astros.
Do not expect a lot of low-scoring games to come out of this series, as both teams are equipped with high-powered offenses and (with the exception of Dallas Keuchel) not a lot of shutdown starting pitching.
Over his final 11 starts, he was better and more consistent, sort of.
The ideal mesh of power and speed, Springer enters the ALDS with multi-hit games in six of his past seven.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a matter of going out and executing”, McHugh said in his press conference Wednesday. “But like I said, that means we’ve got a really good ballclub”. Yes, the Yankees are also a team that gave the Royals trouble earlier this year in New York. They are the only 2014 American League playoff team that made it back to the postseason.
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Perhaps the best proof of just how much things have changed in Kansas City is in the way Dayton Moore, the general manager responsible for the turnaround, approached the trade deadline.
