Kansas City Royals at Houston Astros

· Major League Baseball

Kansas City Royals

67-86, 28-50 Away

Final
2 - 6

Houston Astros

77-76, 39-39 Home

Alvarez hits 40th home run, Astros beat Royals 6-2 to move 1 game ahead of Rangers for AL West lead

Kansas City Royals vs. Houston Astros: Game Highlights

Jeremy Peña hit a first-inning homer for Houston, and Daulton Varsho, Lamonte Wade Jr. and Taylor Trammell also had solo home runs as the Astros hit a season-high five.

Houston (77-76) moved back into sole possession of the lead when Texas (76-77) wasted a eighth-inning lead in a 4-3 loss to Boston. The Astros hold the tiebreaker.

Peña reached 20 homers for the first time since his rookie season in 2022, connecting on the first pitch from Seth Lugo for his sixth leadoff home run this season. Peña added an RBI single in the sixth.

Varsho homered in the second, and Wade and Alvarez in a three-pitch span in the fifth. Alvarez is one home run behind Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero, the AL leader.

Bryan King (3-5) retired four straight batters. Ethan Pecko entered to start the third and allowed one run and three hits over 5 2/3 innings, retiring 15 of his first 16 batters.

Josh Hader pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, finishing a three-hitter and lowering his ERA to 0.83.

Maikel Garcia hit a first-inning, run-scoring double play grounder for the Royals following a pair of walks and a hit batter.

Lugo (7-9) tied his career high by allowing four homers, all solo shots.

Up next Royals: RHP Randy Dobnak (3-4, 2.73 ERA) pitches Friday at Pittsburgh. The Pirates start RHP Paul Skenes (10-11, 3.78), who is 1/3 in his last nine starts,

Astros: RHP Peter Lambert (8-9, 3.71 ERA) seeks his first win since July 11 when he starts Friday against visiting Atlanta and RHP Tyler Mahle (6-10, 3.91).

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

TV Channel: Royals at Astros 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
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Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Massey grounded out to first.
	9th Inning	Garcia grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Loftin flied out to left.
	9th Inning	Hader relieved Abreu
	9th Inning	Loftin hit for Caglianone
	8th Inning	Peña struck out swinging.

Statistics

KC		HOU
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
1	Hit By Pitch	1
12	Ground Balls	8
6	Strikeouts	7
1	Runs Batted In	6
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
3	Hits	11
0	Stolen Bases	1
2	Walks	2
0	Catcher Interference	0
2	Runs	6
1	Ground Into Double Play	1
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
29	At Bats	34
0	Home Runs	5
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
8	Runners Left On Base	11
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	2
11	Fly Balls	19
0	Caught Stealing	0
117	Pitches	134
0	Games Started	0
1	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
4	Total Bases	28
32	Plate Appearances	37
0.0	Projected Home Runs	810.0
1	Extra Base Hits	7
-0.2	Runs Created	9.6
.103	Batting Average	.324
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.138	Slugging Percentage	.824
.103	Secondary Average	.588
.188	On Base Percentage	.378
.325	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	1.202
1.1	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.4
-0.2	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	10.8
11.0	Batter Rating	55.0
0.0	At Bats Per Home Run	6.8
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.66	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.62
.034	Isolated Power	.500
0.33	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.29
.063	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.054
.000	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.265
3.0	Runs Produced	12.0
0.5	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.2	Patience Ratio	0.9
0.1	Balls In Play Average	0.3
61.8	MLB Rating	103.5
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0