Dominguez, Castro, Bullpen, Lead Astros To Win Over Royals

The Houston Astros came into the home stand wanting to start fresh with new President, Reid Ryan, on his first day on the job. The Astros didn’t disappoint him, as they went on to win a close game 6-5.

It was a great night at MMP with Dallas Keuchel on the mound. Keuchel started things off in the first inducing one of three double plays he would get on the night.

Keuchel pitched to contact, though also got hitters out via the punch out. Keuchel tied a career-high, striking out six batters in his 6.2 innings, to go along with allowing nine hits, four walks, and four runs.

Keuchel’s big mistake was allowing former Astro, Miguel Tejada, to hit a home run in the Crawford Boxes. Tejada’s three-run shot in the fourth inning gave the Royals a slight lead before the Astros took it back.

When Keuchel ran into trouble in the 7th, Paul Clemens came in and got a one-pitch out to end the threat. Wesley Wright allowed a one out double in the eighth, and was pulled for Hector Ambriz. A soft looper hit by Jeff Francouer to right field fell right in front of a diving Jimmy Paredes, scoring one run, before Ambriz retired the last two hitters.

In the 9th, Jose Veras shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning, and striking out two, one strikeout being absolutely filthy. Here are some of the tweets on my timeline from that K.

On the batting side, the Astros finally found some of their power. Paredes had the first RBI of the night, grounding out but bringing Chris Carter home. After some poor defense by the Royals, and heads-up base running by Marwin Gonzalez, Jose Altuve had a sac-fly to score MarGo. Jason Castro followed the sac-fly with an opposite field home run, his fourth of the year. Later in the game, Matt Dominguez crushed a three-run shot into the Crawford Boxes, giving the Astros the lead for good. If the Astros can continue to score six runs a game, they may win a few more games in the future.

Notes:

– The Astros lost a run on a blown call by the home-plate umpire. Chris Carter was called out, but was safe on a play at the plate.

– The Astros were on the right side of a blown call later in the game, when the second base umpire incorrectly called an Astros player safe, when Alcides Escobar foot was clearly on the bag.

– The Astros lead the league in inducing double plays with 42

– Look for the Astros on top plays as Matt Dominguez started a spectacular 5-4-3 double play.

The Astros go back at it tomorrow against the Royals at 7:10 PM CT. Bud Norris takes the mound against Wade Davis.