Royals Even Series at 1-1, Head to Houston
The Yankees and Astros play the AL wild-card game Tuesday night for the right to play a best-of-five series beginning Thursday in Kansas City.
The Royals continued to ride their momentum in the bottom of the seventh, as Alcides Escobar led off with a triple against Astros reliever Will Harris. Since the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals each had the best record in their respective leagues in 2015, one might even say such a result is favored-if you believe baseball’s playoff system rewards the strongest teams.
Look, I get it. I know no one wants to think about off season moves because the Kansas City Royals will have a lot of hard decisions to make. Kazmir allowed a run in the third, but otherwise had Kansas City off balance until the sixth inning. They will have Keuchel in Game 3 on the home mound, where he was 15-0 with a 1.46 ERA this season.
“We’re kissing him on the cheek so it was a special picture to us”, his daughter, Jessica Rhodes, said of a photo they glued to a Royals poster they planned to hold up in the stands.
With the Astros hosting their first playoff game in 10 years, the team has several pregame festivities planned Sunday. Except he was far from that guy for Kansas City over the last two months, and no one seemed to know why. The series is tied at one game apiece.
Given the mismatch, at least on paper, it is clear that all the pressure is on Keuchel and the Astros to win Game 3. He will be pitching on short rest, but he threw just 42 pitches in his rain-shortened outing in Game 1, so he should be able to handle a full workload Monday.
Two starters acquired with October in mind, Johnny Cueto of the Royals and Kazmir of the Astros, pitched largely to a stalemate Friday, which meant the outcome hinged on the bullpens.
Colby Rasmus homered, doubled and drove in two runs for Houston, becoming the first player in major league history with an extra-base hit in his first six postseason games. He has had just three career postseason starts and will need to get things spot on today or risk seeing his team fall to 0-2. “We’re going to think about that overnight, over the next couple nights on how to finish at-bats a little bit better to where it ends on our favor”.
The Astros jumped out to a 4-1 lead but managed just two singles after the third inning.
“He’s just good”, Yost said.
What needs to happen now is to lock Zobrist up to a contract that keeps him in Kansas City for the next several years. “We were in position to win that game”. “It’s not a death sentence to lose Game 1”. “We’re going to go in there and battle and try to get off to an early lead”. Kelvin Herrera, Madson and Davis didn’t allow a run in their three innings. LHP Charlie Leibrandt held the record, striking out five Blue Jays in Game 7 of the 1985 ALCS.
“I’m not going out without a fight”, Peterson said, “and neither will they”. He went 8-4 with a 3.48 ERA in 16 Kauffman Stadium starts.