Kansas City Royals win fourth in a row as Merrifield, Rivera lead the way in Houston
For the second time in less than a week, the Kansas City Royals went toe-to-toe with the franchise’s one-time ace and former Cy Young Award winner and came out on top.
The Royals managed just two runs against Houston’s Zack Greinke, who pitched from 2002-10 in the Royals organization, but those runs coupled with a strong outing from rookie left-hander Daniel Lynch gave them an early lead.
After the Royals sparred with Greinke, they delivered several big blows late against the Astros’ bullpen to earn a 7-1 win in the series opener in front of an announced 18,742 Monday night at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
The Royals (56-68) have won four in a row and seven of eight.
The Royals followed a 16-hit game on Sunday with 13 hits on Monday. They’ve had at least 13 hits in back-to-back games for the first time since Sept. 15-16, 2018, against the Minnesota Twins.
“I think it’s aggressiveness in your zone, which we’re always going to come back to,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the key to the recent offensive performances. “There’s not just one universal approach for everybody. …
“It’s that head-to-head combat everyday and figuring out what do I need to do to have a chance for success today. Guys are buying in. They’re game planning well, and right now they’re just fighting through at-bats.”
The Royals have won four of five against the AL West-leading Astros (73-52) and clinched the season series.
Salvador Perez went 2 for 3 and hit his 33rd home run of the season. He now has one of the top five homer-hitting seasons of any American League catcher behind Carlton Fisk (37), Ivan Rodriguez (35), Terry Steinbach (35) and Gary Sanchez (34).
Whit Merrifield went 3 for 5 with a double, a triple and three RBIs, while rookie third baseman Emmanuel Rivera drove in two, scored two and notched his first three-hit game in the majors.
Lynch (4-3) allowed one run on six hits and three walks in five innings. He pitched into the sixth, but did not record an out in that inning before he exited. He struck out five.
For the second start in a row, Lynch faced the most-potent offensive club in the AL and minimized their production. He faced the Astros in his previous start on Aug. 17.
The Astros entered the night leading the majors in runs (672), hits (1,144), on-base percentage (.340) and batting average (.268). They also ranked second in OPS (.783).
Astros hitters Michael Brantley (.319) and Yuli Gurriel (.312) came into the series ranked first and second, respectively, in the AL in batting average.
While Lynch made consecutive starts in the majors against the Detroit Tigers, he’d pitched in the minors between those starts. Monday marked the first time he faced the same team in such close proximity in the majors.
“I think the alternate site last year was the best preparation for this that there possibly could have been,” Lynch said. “That’s kind of what I went back to because I was facing the exact same hitters week after week after week after week after week and I honestly felt like I liked that at times because I could learn their tendencies at times and learn different ways to get them out.”
Lynch credited his catcher Perez for helping him make necessary adjustments.
The Royals got the game’s first run in the second after a one-out double to the wall in left field by Ryan O’Hearn put him in scoring position. Then Rivera followed with a two-out double to right field to drive in O’Hearn.
“I went into that at-bat looking for his fastball,” Rivera said with assistant strength and conditioning coach Luis Perez translating. “I got the chance to watch him throw when we were at home, and I just got ready for the fastball on that one.”
In the third inning, Sal Perez’s solo homer gave the Royals a 2-0 advantage. The blast, which traveled 369 feet, gave Perez a new career high with his 81st RBI of the season.
The Astros got a run back in the third on Gurriel’s two-out double. With runners on the corners, he got enough of an 0-1 slider to muscle it into left field. Lynch got left-handed hitting slugger Yordan Alvarez to fly out to end the inning and strand two runners.
Lynch worked into and out of trouble again in the fifth. A one-out walk to Martin Maldonado, a double by Jose Altuve and two-out walk by Gurriel loaded the bases. Again, Lynch got Alvarez to end the inning — in that instance via a ground ball — and kept the 2-1 lead intact.
“I thought I made two pretty good pitches to Gurriel that got called balls,” Lynch said. “The umpire called a ball so they were balls, but I was actually okay to walk him there with two outs to get to the lefty. That’s kind of what we went for. We didn’t want to give him something since he seemed like he was seeing me pretty well then move on to the lefty.”
Rivera’s throwing error put the first batter of the sixth inning on for the Astros, and Lynch gave up a single to the next batter Aledmys Diaz. That marked the end of Lynch’s outing. Right-handed reliever Domingo Tapia took over on the mound.
“You have to be confident, you come in with one, two outs,” Tapia said with Luis Perez translating. “You’re always looking for a ground ball. I rely on the sinker. It’s about throwing it for strikes and making it work.”
Tapia held the fort with a strikeout and an inning-ending double play started by Rivera.
In 12 appearances in August, Tapia has posted a 0.82 ERA with a 0.59 opponent’s batting average and a 0.73 WHIP.
“To me, that’s the game right there a 2-1 game and Tapia coming in and getting the swing and miss and then the ground ball,” Matheny said. “That’s impressive. He has been really good.”
The Royals added to their lead with two runs in the top of the seventh after Greinke exited and pushed their lead to 4-1. They tacked on three more runs in the eighth.
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 10:54 PM.
