KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ On Tuesday afternoon, in the hours before another bout with the American League's most incendiary offense, Royals manager Ned Yost sat inside a dugout at Kauffman Stadium and tried to explain the dangers of playing baseball against the Houston Astros.
The night before, he had witnessed the relentless nature of the Astros' attack. In a few hours, he would watch the Royals take another shot and rise up from the mat, erasing a six-run deficit in a 9-7 victory. They were staggered and bloodied and armed with a rookie starter against a team that had won 11 straight games. And yet, the Royals emerged with one of the grittiest wins of this season.
Second baseman Whit Merrifield drove in three runs with a bases-loaded, game-tying double off Astros closer Ken Giles with two outs in the eighth inning. Mike Moustakas drilled a two-run, walk-off homer against Giles in the bottom of the ninth, securing the win.
On a night in which Alex Gordon finally homered, snapping a stretch of 192 at-bats without a blast, the Royals laid waste to another streak, stopping the Astros' winning streak at 11 games. It was, of course, not the way you expected it to happen. Trailing 7-1 after 4{ innings, the Royals appeared poised to drop their third straight game and fall to nine games under .500. And then, little by little, the epic comeback began.
To play against the Astros, to pitch against their torrid bats and maneuver through their stacked lineup, can be akin to going 12 rounds with a heavyweight champion, Yost said before the game. The punches come in flurries, he said, every body shot taking its toll. This time, the Royals struck back.
"Last night, it felt like a boxing match," Yost said. "We came out in the second round, and they kind of knocked us back a little bit. We were dazed ... and they knocked us back again.
"We just kept battling until the ninth inning, where they mixed in a hard right that we didn't see coming and, boom, the game's over."
One night later, the Royals stepped into the ring with the Astros again, sending rookie pitcher Jakob Junis to fight up a weight class. The results were predictable _ for 4{ innings.
Moustakas' game-winning homer came after Salvador Perez reached with two outs. Moments later, Moustakas clubbed his 15th homer of the season deep into the night. The baseball landed in the seats in right field. The celebration spilled out onto the field at Kauffman Stadium.
For moment, though, let's reset: The Astros raked Junis for seven earned runs and nine hits in 32/3 innings. The hard right came in the form of a four-run fourth inning. As the Houston offense kept on the attack, third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert compounded the problem with an errant throw to first base, allowing a run with two outs. Moments later, former Royals outfielder Carlos Beltran leveled Junis with a two-run homer to right field, pushing the Astros' lead to 7-1.
Down starting pitchers Danny Duffy and Nathan Karns, and facing a critical stretch in early June, the Royals have sought to patch up their rotation with youth, turning toward Eric Skoglund and Junis.
Skoglund, a 6-foot-7 left-hander, offered an inspired debut in a 1-0 victory over Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers before falling back to earth in a loss to the Indians. Junis, who had performed adequately in a spot start against the Twins on May 21, took the mound Tuesday for his second career start. He opened the evening with two scoreless frames before absorbing his first punch in the third.
Like a fighter testing out his defenses, Junis tiptoed around a powerful lineup before the damage added up. He allowed a leadoff double to George Springer and an infield single to Josh Reddick before Jose Altuve put the Astros on the board with a sacrifice fly. Moments later, after two more walks, first baseman Yuli Gurriel dumped a two-run single into center field with two outs.
Gordon crushed a solo homer to deep center field off Astros starter David Paulino in the bottom of the third, slicing the lead to 3-1. It was Gordon's first homer since Sept. 25, 2016, a drought that stretched 192 at-bats and the first 50 games of Gordon's 2017 season.
For Gordon, who entered the day slugging just .209, it represented the sixth extra-base hit of his season.
For the Royals, it wouldn't even be the biggest homer of the night.
