Salvador Perez lifts the Royals with a two-run homer in 4-2 victory over Houston

The cracking sound of wood meeting baseball echoed across the cavernous confines of Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night. The ominous sound of silence came next.

In the top of the eighth inning, Royals catcher Salvador Perez took a vicious hack at a breaking ball and roped a two-run blast into the Crawford Boxes in left field. In the moment, Perez knew the ball was gone. So perhaps did Astros reliever Ken Giles. The homer landed 367 feet from home plate and broke the deadlock on another tense night in Houston. The swing became the decisive blow in the Royals’ 4-2 victory over the Astros.

“I’m trying to protect the zone, try to be aggressive,” Perez said. “He left it up, and I hit it pretty good.”

For the second straight night, Kansas City tamed its old postseason foe with a potent combination of gutsy starting pitching and mostly reliable relief work. Starter Yordano Ventura allowed just one run in six innings. The Royals made it work despite a brief wobble from Luke Hochevar in the seventh and closer Wade Davis taking the night off after throwing 33 pitches in Tuesday’s 3-2 victory.

Manager Ned Yost simply utilized the depth of his bullpen, calling on Kelvin Herrera in the eighth and giving the ball to Joakim Soria in the ninth. Soria recorded his first save for the Royals since Sept. 11, 2011, during his previous stint with the Royals. His parents, in town from Mexico, were in the stands to watch their son finish off the game.

“It was a good feeling,” Soria said. “I got a little of the memories in there. But at the same time, I just want to do the best I can to win the ballgame.”

The Royals won their second straight close game in Houston and improved to 6-2 this season. Six months after claiming the World Series championship, the freight train rolls on. The offense has yet to take off. The starting pitching has been solid but not quite dominant. The wins have still piled up.

The Royals will finish out the four-game series at 7:10 p.m. Thursday before heading to Oakland for a weekend series.

“The good thing is we compete,” said Perez, who entered the night batting just .208. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how we’re going to swing (right now). Like me, I’ve been struggling a little bit.”

This one wasn’t simple, especially after the bullpen offered a rare flinch. Trailing 2-1, the Astros scraped across the tying run against Hochevar in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Jason Castro tripled to the base of Tal’s Hill in center field. Moments later, Astros second baseman Jose Altuve saw three straight curveballs and lined the third one — on a 1-2 pitch — into center field, tying the game.

Altuve sprinted out of the box and turned for second, forcing a poor throw from Lorenzo Cain. With the go-ahead run in scoring position, Hochevar steadied himself, striking out George Springer and Carlos Correa to end the threat.

One inning earlier, Ventura had avoided catastrophe in the bottom of the sixth. Altuve had sliced the lead to 2-1 with a mammoth homer that landed on the train tracks high above the left-field fence. And Houston continued to hound Ventura, putting runners at first and second with two outs. Moments later, the inning nearly combusted.

Shortstop Alcides Escobar booted a routine ground ball from the bat of Preston Tucker, which loaded the bases. Ventura remained poised and rendered the mistake a footnote. He buckled down against Houston center fielder Carlos Gomez, running the count to 3-2 before spinning an 84 mph change-up. Gomez could not adjust, sending a checked-swing grounder to second for the final out.

“That’s part of the game,” said Royals catching coach Pedro Grifol, who translated for Ventura. “Errors are part of the game. His job after the error is to make sure he gets us out of that inning and help this ball club.”

In his season debut against Minnesota, Ventura had lasted just five innings, combining his electric arsenal with a ramshackle command. He finished with six strikeouts and six walks. He sought more consistency on Wednesday night. For five innings, he kept Houston scoreless, finishing his outing with six strikeouts and three walks while throwing 99 pitches.

“Ventura’s pitching was fantastic,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I thought he threw the ball really well. Some of the best curveballs I’ve seen him throw, probably ever. He had some tilt on that thing.”

Ventura’s only blemish came against Altuve in the sixth. The fastball came in at 94 mph. It was missile-launched to deep left. The homer foreshadowed the drama to come.

In Tuesday’s 3-2 victory, the Royals’ offense had gone quietly over the final eight innings. On Wednesday, the scoreless drought reached 13 innings as Astros starter Scott Feldman confounded with a heavy assortment of cut fastballs and other offspeed pitches. The Royals squandered a one-out double from Mike Moustakas in the top of the first. They wasted a leadoff double from Kendrys Morales in the second. They couldn’t score when Omar Infante ripped a one-out double into the left-field corner in the fifth.

They finally broke through in the top of the sixth inning, taking advantage of a defensive letdown from Feldman. With one out, Cain and Eric Hosmer connected on back-to-back singles, putting runners at the corners. Morales followed by chopping a baseball off the plate and toward the third-base line. Feldman scrambled off the mound to make the play and paused for a moment to look Cain back to third. But he rushed his throw, yanking it over the head of first baseman Tyler White. Cain sprinted home as Hosmer cruised into third base. After Feldman opted to intentionally walk Alex Gordon, Perez stretched the lead to 2-0 with a sacrifice fly to left field.

The Royals would require more offense to finish off the Astros. They also would need Soria to finish off the ninth inning. By the end, they had received both.

“After Wade throwing 33 pitches yesterday, I wasn’t going to use Wade,” Yost said. “We figured we got it set up good.”

Wednesday’s summary

Royals 4, Astros 2

a-flied out for Kratz in the 9th.

1-ran for J.Castro in the 7th.

E: A.Escobar (1), Feldman (1). LOB: Kansas City 7, Houston 8. 2B: Moustakas (2), K.Morales (2), Infante (3), Altuve 2 (3). 3B: J.Castro (2). HR: S.Perez (1), off Giles; Altuve (2), off Ventura. RBIs: S.Perez 3 (4), Altuve 2 (4). SF: S.Perez.

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 4 (Hosmer, Infante 2, A.Escobar); Houston 4 (Col.Rasmus, C.Gomez 2, Correa). RISP: Kansas City 0 for 9; Houston 1 for 8. Runners moved up: Orlando, Correa. GIDP: C.Gomez. DP: Kansas City 1 (Infante, A.Escobar, Hosmer).

Blown saves: Hochevar (2). Holds: K.Herrera (2). Inherited runners-scored: Sipp 1-0, Neshek 1-0. IW: off Feldman (A.Gordon). PB: J.Castro.

Umpires: Home, Eric Cooper; First, Jim Wolf; Second, Adrian Johnson; Third, Gary Cederstrom. Time: 3:03. Att: 24,109.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 10:38 PM with the headline "Salvador Perez lifts the Royals with a two-run homer in 4-2 victory over Houston."