Houston Astros get back in the swing with five homers to beat Royals and keep pace in AL West

A night after falling into a first-place tie in the American League West, the Houston Astros held serve in a division race entering its final days.

Their sputtering lineup slugged five home runs. Four pitchers combined to hold the Kansas City Royals to three hits. With a 6-2 win on Thursday night at Daikin Park, the Astros secured a series against a club out of contention and maintained their footing in the AL playoff picture.

The Astros ensured they would remain at least tied atop the AL West with the Rangers, over whom they hold the tiebreaker, pending Texas' result against Boston. Nine games remain in their season, the next three against the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves.

Houston's lineup totaled 12 hits in the first two games against Kansas City, half of those from leadoff man Jeremy Peña. It had 11 in the finale, including five solo home runs. Four came against Royals starter Seth Lugo, who allowed that many in a game for just the third time in 11 major-league seasons.

Peña, again, provided the spark, hitting the first pitch Lugo threw onto the left-field train tracks. It erased the 1-0 lead the Royals built in the top of the first. Daulton Varsho, batting .181 since the Astros acquired him at the trade deadline, drove a fastball from Lugo into their bullpen in the second inning.

Ethan Pecko, the right-hander making his sixth major-league outing, entered in the third, inheriting a 2-1 lead, and subdued the Royals until the eighth. Pecko scattered three hits over 5 2/3 innings of bulk-relief work, his second straight strong outing in that role, while Houston's lineup added to its lead.

LaMonte Wade Jr., drawing a start at first base over slumping Christian Walker, homered against Lugo in the fifth. Two batters later, Yordan Alvarez struck his 40th home run of the season, a soaring drive to the second deck in right field. Peña beat a two-out infield single in the sixth to make it 5-1.

A two-out single by Carter Jensen in the eighth pared the lead to three and ended Pecko's night. Bryan Abreu struck out Bobby Witt Jr. to strand him. Taylor Trammell, just back from the paternity list, hit the Astros' fifth home run in the next half-inning, setting a season-high for the club.

Josh Hader worked the ninth inning with a four-run lead, a non-save situation, underscoring where the Astros stand with nine games to play. Every win is critical for them.

A benchmark for Yordan Alvarez

Alvarez arced a fastball from Lugo into the second deck in right field in the fifth inning for his 40th home run of the season, a number just four other Houston hitters have reached.

His 40-home run season is the eighth in Astros franchise history. Jeff Bagwell logged three such seasons, Lance Berkman had two and Richard Hidalgo and Alex Bregman each recorded one.

Bagwell holds the franchise record with 47 home runs. Alvarez pulled within one home run of American League leader Junior Caminero and within three RBIs of Pete Alonso, the AL leader in that category.

Strong work by Ethan Pecko

Pecko has worked behind an opener in his last two outings and been effective in both. Against the Rays, he allowed one hit across 5 2/3 innings. He held the Royals to three hits in 5⅔ frames, did not walk a batter and struck out four.

Pecko was efficient, recording his first nine outs on 29 pitches. He took the mound in the sixth with the Royals still hitless, but Jensen's one-out single up the middle ended the budding no-hit bid and a run of 10 batters in a row retired by Pecko.

Royals hitters averaged just an 85.2 mph exit velocity on 16 balls put into play against the rookie right-hander, who threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of 20 batters faced. John Rave lined a leadoff double in the eighth and scored on Jensen's two-out single. Pecko has a 3.77 ERA in 28⅔ major-league innings.

Big series for Jeremy Peña

Peña's outburst was perhaps the biggest positive from the series for the Astros, who need the leadoff man to ignite their offense. Peña entered the series batting .170 with a .518 OPS since August 3 and 7-for-47 in his first 12 games of September.

He then went 7-for-9 in his first nine at-bats against the Royals, capped by his leadoff home run against Lugo. It marked the second time in three days that Peña homered on the first pitch Kansas City's starter threw; he did the same to Michael Wacha in the opener.

It was the 20th home run for Peña, who reached that number for the first time since his rookie year in 2022. He became the fifth Astros hitter to attain it this season. Peña had multiple hits in each game in the series and finished 8-for-13 with four extra-base hits.

Opener strategy averts disaster

Houston deployed right-hander Miguel Ullola as an opener before Pecko for a second consecutive turn. It was less effective than Ullola's first outing in the role, which yielded a scoreless first inning at Tampa Bay.

Ullola threw nine consecutive balls to open Thursday's game. After issuing back-to-back four-pitch walks, he received a mound visit from pitching coach Josh Miller. His next pitch bounced and hit Jac Caglianone on the foot, loading the bases with nobody out.

Ullola did help keep the inning from spiraling, inducing a double-play grounder on which Jensen scored. Bryan King relieved him and coaxed a groundout that capped the damage at one run. King returned and threw a clean second inning before Pecko entered the game.

Up next

The Astros will start a three-game series Friday at home against Atlanta, their final series at Daikin Park before ending the regular season on the road against the Mariners and A's.

Peter Lambert, Hayden Wesneski and Hunter Brown are projected to start for the Astros, who have their three most reliable starters lined up to face an Atlanta offense averaging the eighth-most runs per game in the majors entering Thursday.

Atlanta is scheduled to start right-handers Tyler Mahle and Grant Holmes in the first two games and left-hander Martín Pérez in the finale Sunday. The Astros will not have to face Cy Young candidate Chris Sale, who had his start pushed back to next week.

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This article originally published at Houston Astros get back in the swing with five homers to beat Royals and keep pace in AL West.