KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Of the three home runs the Astros sent over Kauffman Stadium's fences on this balmy Friday night, none did more damage than Evan Gattis' sixth-inning grand slam.
The ball traveled 101 mph, extinguished the Royals' tenuous one-run lead and effectively killed hopes of a comeback in what became a 7-3 loss to open a three-game set against the defending World Series champions.
Starting pitcher Jakob Junis watched Gattis' homer travel from near home plate, to where he'd jogged as soon as the ball left Gattis' bat. Junis knew instantly it was gone.
But after having struck out Gattis, who had hit five homers and driven in 16 runs in his previous eight games, in two prior at-bats, there had been a bit of hope Junis would escape his clutches.
Instead, four straight men touched home plate. Gattis arrived in the opposing dugout and was immediately drawn into the arms of left fielder Tony Kemp _ or the other way around, really, as Kemp is listed as 10 inches shorter than the 6-foot-4 Gattis.
On the other side of the field, Junis walked off the mound. His head was down, as it usually is. But this time _ and for the second start in a row _ he took a seat on the bench after allowing a trio of homers and six runs in 51/3 innings.
And this time, it wasn't the slider that got Junis in trouble. It was a combination of fastballs and sinkers, pitches the Astros, a club that entered Friday leading baseball with both a .264 batting average and 359 runs scored, knew to manipulate.
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman got hold of what turned out to be the first homer, driving a low sinker 368 feet over the left-field fence to cut the Royals' lead to 2-1. Two batters later, Carlos Correa barreled up a 91-mph fastball for a game-tying solo homer that sailed 455 feet into the porch above the left-field bullpen.
The Royals' first bit of hope burst onto the scene in the third inning, on a two-out double dribbled toward the right-field corner by Mike Moustakas. The hit scored two Royals for the first time since last Friday, when Moustakas drove a two-run homer in one of the Royals' three losses in Oakland.
Moustakas gave the Royals another lead in the fifth on Friday, drawing a bases-loaded walk from starting pitcher Charlie Morton to give the Royals a 3-1 lead.
But that's where the rally stopped: Salvador Perez grounded into a double play, his team-leading 11th of the season and the Royals' majors-leading 68th of the year.
It was the end of the damage the Royals mustered against Morton in six innings. He yielded four hits and four walks and struck out nine.
The Royals have batted .169 (60-for-354) since June 3.
They fell to 22-47 with Friday's loss.
