The Houston Astros finally found some offense Thursday night, hitting five home runs in a 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals to take the rubber game at Daikin Park.
Jeremy Peña, Daulton Varsho, LaMonte Wade Jr., Yordan Alvarez, and Taylor Trammell all went deep, while Ethan Pecko delivered 5⅔ innings of long relief after Miguel Ullola failed to make it out of the first inning. Houston finished with 11 hits after scoring just three runs combined in the first two games of the series.
Pecko Does the Heavy Lifting
Ullola’s first major league start lasted only two-thirds of an inning. He walked Carter Jensen and Bobby Witt Jr. and hit Jac Caglianone to load the bases with nobody out. Maikel Garcia’s double play brought home Kansas City’s first run before Bryan King replaced Ullola and recorded the final out.
King worked a scoreless second before Pecko took over in the third, and the right-hander did the heavy lifting from there. Pecko allowed three hits and one run over 5⅔ innings, striking out four without issuing a walk. He threw 71 pitches and earned his first hold.
Kansas City managed just three hits all night.
Astros Break Out the Long Ball
Peña erased the early deficit immediately, leading off the bottom of the first with his 20th home run of the season. Varsho followed with a solo shot in the second to put Houston ahead 2-1.
The Astros added two more in the fifth on back-to-back solo home runs from Wade and Alvarez. Wade’s was his fourth of the season, while Alvarez reached the 40-homer mark for the first time in his career.
Houston added another run in the sixth after Trammell walked and Wade doubled. Peña brought Trammell home with an RBI single, giving him two RBI on the night.
The Royals finally broke through against Pecko in the eighth when John Rave doubled and scored on Jensen’s RBI single. Bryan Abreu replaced Pecko and struck out Bobby Witt Jr. to end the inning.
Trammell provided the final exclamation point in the bottom of the eighth, homering in his first game back after being activated from the paternity list earlier Thursday. His eighth homer of the season restored Houston’s four-run lead at 6-2.
Josh Hader retired Kansas City in order in the ninth to close it out.
The Astros improved to 77-76 with nine games remaining and took two of three from the Royals. The Astros improved to 77-76 with nine games remaining and took two of three from the Royals. Texas later fell 4-3 to Boston, leaving Houston alone atop the AL West with a one-game lead over the Rangers.
Houston opens a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves on Friday at 7:10 p.m. CT at Daikin Park. Peter Lambert (8-9, 3.71 ERA) will start for Houston against Atlanta right-hander Tyler Mahle (6-10, 3.91 ERA).
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