Jeremy Peña did everything he could, but it wasn't enough to keep the Astros in the game, causing them to fall into a first-place tie with the Rangers.
The Houston Astros got the job done in the opener, and needed another win Wednesday night. Cristian Javier took the mound for the Astros and started the game off with back-to-back walks. Not a great start for the right-hander. He had an early visit from Josh Miller, as Javier was struggling to find the plate to start the game. He was able to get out of the jam when Christian Walker caught a pop up. A huge visit from Josh Miller.
Jeremy Peña continues to stay hot, kicking the game off with a double. Alvarez and Paredes were retired, and Altuve lined out to put an end to the inning. So far, a scoreless game.
Javier had a rough start but once again worked around some base runners in the second inning, and made it out of another inning scoreless. But in the fourth, Javier gave up a two-run shot to Rave, which was only the third home run Javier has allowed to a lefty out of the ten he has given up this season. Now the Astros were down 2-0 and needed to get back in the game, but the Royals continued to get those base hits. Javier was done after five and a third innings.
Bryan King came in and put an end to the sixth, escaping a two-runners-on jam. Then Jeremy Peña came up with yet another base hit. The shortstop is just red hot lately. Then the big guy stepped up, and it almost looked like déjà vu from Tuesday's game, but the ball was caught at the wall. And once again, Peña was on base with nothing on the scoreboard to show for it. He also had a great defensive play to help limit a run, Peña was doing the most for the Astros.
Someone other than Peña finally had a base hit, and that was Altuve. Yainer Diaz followed with a base hit of his own, finally getting a couple of runners on for the Astros. But once again, nothing to show for it, followed by three consecutive outs.
Then Michael Massey led off the eighth with a home run off Enyel De Los Santos, further digging a hole that was going to be hard to climb out of, since the Astros weren't on the board and it was already the eighth. A throwing error by Jorge Barrosa on Carter Jensen's RBI double let a second run score in that same inning, and just like that, it was 5-0.
Finally, in the bottom of the eighth, the Astros got something going. Alvarez came up with a stand-up double, then Paredes got the Astros on the board with a sac fly, making it 5-1. In the ninth, Yainer Diaz crushed a home run to make it 5-2, but it wasn't enough to catch up to the Royals. Final score, 5-2.
This was simply a loss the Astros could not afford, yet they let the Royals even out the series. The loss also dropped Houston into a tie for first place in the AL West with the Rangers, though the Astros still hold the tiebreaker. It is absolutely crucial that the Astros get the job done Thursday night to close out this series, before taking on the Braves.
