Kansas City Royals at Houston Astros

· Major League Baseball

Kansas City Royals

75-62, 34-34 Away

Final
2 - 5

Houston Astros

74-62, 38-29 Home

Kikuchi strikes out 12 in 7 innings and Astros beat Royals 5-2

Kikuchi (7-9) improved to 3-0 with a 2.57 ERA since he was acquired by Houston a day before the trade deadline. He gave up five hits, only allowing Kansas City a run on a fielder’s choice grounder that followed two singles in the seventh. He threw 101 pitches, including 75 for strikes and walked none.

“He was really, really, really good,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He had all his pitches working, both sides of the plate. Our starting pitching has been phenomenal for a while, and Kikuchi just adds another level of quality of starts that we’ve been getting from these guys.”

Kikuchi pumped his fist following his 12th strikeout to end the seventh.

“The last couple of games, the starters have been doing really well so I wanted to do my part,” Kikuchi said. “The defensive plays behind me, especially (Ben) Gamel there in right, that was a huge play. Just watching that, I got pumped up today.”

Ryan Pressly pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save of the season.

Kikuchi had no run support until the Astros chased Royals starter Cole Ragans (10-9) in a five-run sixth inning. Yainer Diaz hit a two-run single, and Jeremy Peña hit a two-run triple during the inning, before Peña scored on a wild pitch.

Ragans looked dominant for much of the first five innings, allowing just one hit and matching a Royals franchise record with eight consecutive strikeouts. The record was set by Blake Stein in 2001 at Milwaukee.

“I was good for five and terrible for one,” Ragans said. “I mean, the record’s cool, but all I want to do is win. That’s all I want to do. Obviously, I didn’t get that done tonight, and I feel like I let the guys down."

Ragans finished with 10 strikeouts, pushing his season total to 197, which is the most by a Royals lefty in a single season.

“He was extremely sharp early,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Then, in the fifth, it was an 0-2 hit, a hit batter, a tough walk, and then things just kind of unraveled.”

Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. hit his 29th home run of the season in the eighth inning off reliever Hector Neris, who the Astros signed on Aug. 24 after he was released by the Cubs on Aug. 20.

Witt, who leads the major leagues in hits, batting average and runs, had previously had a rough time in Houston, going 0 for 11 this series. He entered Saturday 0 for 19 in his home state of Texas.

“You just wake up tomorrow and move on,” Witt said. “We can’t really do anything now so we just learn what we did and prepare for tomorrow.”

Later in the eighth, Royals right fielder Garrett Hampson robbed Alvarez of what would have been his 29th homer of the season. Hampson leaped at the wall and had to fully extend his left arm well above the yellow home run line to bring it back.

ROYALS’ NEW ADDITIONS

Kansas City claimed a pair of veteran outfielders off waivers on Saturday in Robbie Grossman, 35, and Tommy Pham, 36. Grossman was claimed from Texas, where he won the World Series last year, while Pham was claimed from St. Louis. The Royals also acquired former Astros 1B Yuli Gurriel from Atlanta on a minor league deal for cash considerations.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Astros: 3B Alex Bregman is “still sore” but was “much better” as he missed Saturday’s game with elbow soreness that has sidelined him for several games in recent weeks.

Royals RHP Alec Marsh (7-7, 4.67 ERA) will start against Astros RHP Ronel Blanco (9-6, 3.14) as Houston goes for a four-game sweep on Sunday.

How can I watch Kansas City Royals vs. Houston Astros?

TV Channel: Royals at Astros 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Astros: 50.6%

Royals: 49.4%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Frazier grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Frazier hit for Loftin
	9th Inning	Melendez singled to right.
	9th Inning	Fermin flied out to left.
	9th Inning	DeJong struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Pressly relieved Neris

Statistics

KC		HOU
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	1
13	Ground Balls	6
13	Strikeouts	11
2	Runs Batted In	4
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
7	Hits	5
0	Stolen Bases	2
0	Walks	2
0	Catcher Interference	0
2	Runs	5
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
34	At Bats	29
1	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
10	Runners Left On Base	5
0	Triples	1
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	0
8	Fly Balls	12
0	Caught Stealing	0
131	Pitches	140
0	Games Started	0
2	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
11	Total Bases	7
34	Plate Appearances	32
162.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
2	Extra Base Hits	1
2.0	Runs Created	2.0
.206	Batting Average	.172
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.324	Slugging Percentage	.241
.118	Secondary Average	.207
.206	On Base Percentage	.250
.529	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.491
1.6	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.5
2.0	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	2.3
20.0	Batter Rating	27.5
34.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.85	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	4.38
.118	Isolated Power	.069
0.00	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.18
.000	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.063
-.088	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.034
4.0	Runs Produced	9.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	0.8
0.3	Patience Ratio	0.3
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.3
71.0	MLB Rating	72.5
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0