The Kansas City Royals were the current incarnation of the Houston Astros in the 2000's. That makes this week's series in Houston much more of a grudge match than it should be, but it also may showcase two somewhat evenly matched teams.
At the very least, Houston showed its propensity for playing one-run games has not ended, though the luck turned a bit on Monday. Thanks to a pair of home runs by Jason Castro and Matt Dominguez, the Astros slid past the Ryolas for a 6-5 victory to open the three-game set at Minute Maid Park.
Castro's blast gave Houston an early 3-1 lead and came on the heels of Jose Altuve's sacrifice fly that broke the 1-1 tie. Dominguez, on the other hand, had a huge three-run home run that erased the Royals own 4-3 lead from the half-inning before.
KC jumped out to the lead thanks to a familiar Astros face. Miguel Tejada drove a Dallas Keuchel pitch over the fence for his own three-run home run in the top of the fourth. Keuchel settled in after that, though, holding the Royals down for another 2 2/3 innings.
On the night, Keuchel threw 6 2/3 innings, picking up his first victory of the season. The lefty struck out six and walked four while giving up nine hits and four earned runs.
The Royals kept making it interesting, though, as they scored another run in the top of the eighth that was charged to Wesley Wright but belonged to Hector Ambriz.
Jose Veras was able to slam the door shut in the ninth, striking out both Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar on 3-2 counts before getting a groundout to first from Alex Gordon to end the game. It was Veras' seventh save of the season.
Oh yeah, and Reid Ryan was pretty excited, as the Astros got a home win on his first day as the new team president.
GIF of the Night
New Astros team president Reid Ryan isn't afraid of foul balls.