The Kansas City Royals looked dead to rights heading into the eighth inning on Monday. At that point they had only recorded two hits and two walks.
Kansas City had no answer for Astros' right-hander Lance McCullers after the second inning. Royals' catcher Salvador Perez smacked a two-run homer off the rookie in the second to take a 2-0 lead, but Houston responded with six straight runs on four homers and a double.
Rookie shortstop Carlos Correa finished 4-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs; Colby Rasmus went 2-for-4 with a home run; and Carlos Gomez also went 2-for-4 with a home run. McCullers tossed 6 1/3 innings and have up two earned runs and struck out seven.
However, that seemingly wasn't enough for Houston to keep their lead.
All Houston had to do was rely on their bullpen for the final two innings. They were six outs away from reaching their first ALCS since 2005, and their cast of relievers has been one of the strongest aspects of their roster this season.
But then came the Royals' offensive awakening.
A five-run eighth inning put Kansas City up 7-6 thanks to RBI singles from Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer as well as RBI groundouts from Kendrys Morales and Alex Gordon. Astros' reliever Will Harris was charged with four runs (three earned) in just 2/3 of an inning and Tony Sipp recorded an unearned run in 1/3 of an inning.
Correa committed a huge error in the eighth that allowed Cain and Ben Zobrist to score and Hosmer to advance to third (he scored on Gordon's RBI groundout).
Hosmer also added a two-run homer off Josh Fields in the top of the ninth, which pretty much shut the door on any comeback hopes for the Astros. The Royals won 9-6.
While Kansas City certainly has the momentum at this point, their pitching staff again failed to shut down the young Astros. Yordano Ventura surrendered three earned runs on four hits and three walks in just five innings and relievers Kelvin Herrera (1 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB) and Ryan Madson (1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H) did not provide good relief for the team. This forced manager Ned Yost to turn to closer Wade Davis in the eighth inning. The right-hander pitched two scoreless innings, gave up just one hit, struck out three and earned the save.
Nonetheless, the ALDS is now tied 2-2 and Game 5 will take place in Kansas City on Wendesday at 8:07 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Astros' right-hander Collin McHugh will face Royals' right-hander Johnny Cueto in a matchup that will decide who will advance to the NLCS.
