HOUSTON _ This was anticlimactic.
Reliever Matt Strahm walked in the losing run in the 12th inning on Sunday as the Royals dropped a 5-4 decision to the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Strahm continued a rash of command issues in this young season. He had not pitched since Wednesday in Minnesota. But Sunday's game kept going, and Royals manager Ned Yost called on him in the 12th.
The inning began with an infield single by George Springer, who hit a chopper up the middle that second baseman Cheslor Cuthbert could not field cleanly. Cuthbert, who had pinch hit for Raul Mondesi in the 12th, slipped on the play. Alex Bregman dropped down a sacrifice bunt, and the Royals issued an intentional walk to Jose Altuve. Carlos Correa followed with a fielder's choice to third base, and Brian McCann worked a 10-pitch walk, setting up a bases-loaded matchup with Evan Gattis.
Royals reliever Joakim Soria had pushed the game to the 12th with two scoreless inning in relief. He allowed just one hit and a walk while striking out two.
The Royals, though, could not break through for a second time against reliever Chris Devenski, who struck out seven in four innings of relief.
Hitless in his first 11 at-bats, designated hitter Brandon Moss smashed a solo homer in his 12th, giving the Royals a 4-3 lead in the top of the ninth. Moss roped a 2-2 change-up from the right arm of Devenski, and for a moment, the Royals were three outs from a three-game sweep.
But Astros center fielder Jake Marisnick spoiled Kelvin Herrera's first save opportunity, lining a game-tying homer into the seats in left field. The homer traveled just 331 feet, bouncing off the top of the wall and landing in the Crawford Boxes. Herrera settled down and retired the Astros, sending the game to the 10th.
The Royals rode another power display all afternoon, receiving solo homers from Salvador Perez, Mike Moustakas and then ... Moss. They finished the day with 10 homers in six games in this young season. The total includes nine solo shots.
Perez's homer represented his fourth in four games, becoming the first Royals player to accomplish the feat since Billy Butler on July 26-29, 2011.
The Astros erased a 3-1 deficit in the seventh inning when Marwin Gonzalez yanked a 74 mph curveball into the first row of the Crawford Boxes in left field. The baseball landed 349 feet from home plate. The two-run blast knotted the game at 3. The Royals' bullpen experienced some seventh-inning turbulence for the fourth time in six games.
Reliever Chris Young escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth after Gattis had reached base on a broken-bat grounder to the left of second base. A mini defensive shift had put second baseman Raul Mondesi in position to field the grounder, but he hesitated for a split second and Gattis beat the throw.
Nathan Karns, the Royals' fifth starter, opened his first start by serving up a solo homer to Springer in the bottom of the first. And for two innings, Karns survived with a precarious strategy. The Astros kept lacing balls all over Minute Maid Park _ and they kept running into outs.
Correa was thrown out attempting to go first to third in the bottom of the first, cut down by a relay from Paulo Orlando to Alcides Escobar. Gattis opened the second by roping a single into the left-field corner. He was gunned down at second base by left fielder Alex Gordon. In each instance, the Astros were hampered by awkward slides that came up just short. And the sliding problems continued when Gonzalez attempted to steal on Perez later in the inning.
Gonzalez couldn't stay on the bag. The inning ended on a strikeout-caught-stealing double play.
The Royals charged back thanks to homers from Perez and Moustakas, sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt that scored Orlando from third base. Their final run came courtesy of Moss in the ninth.
