(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Royals score 7 runs in last two innings to force 5th game vs. Astros!
Nederlands
 HOUSTON, Texas (USA) -
The Kansas City Royals came from behind Monday-afternoon in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Houston Astros to win 9-6 and even the series.
With that, the series now moves back to Kansas City, where Game 5 will be played on Wednesday.
The Astros scored three runs in the seventh inning to take a 6-2 lead, but the Royals then rallied for five runs in the eighth and added two more in the ninth to turn the game its way.
As there were four games today, it meant that there were two afternoon games.
The Houston vs. Kansas City game went underway at 12:07 PM local time.
Despite the early starting time, more than 42,000 spectators attended the game.
Following this game in the afternoon, the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays met in their fourth ALDS-game.
Later in the evening, the two NLDS continued with the Chicago Cubs hosting the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers playing at the New York Mets.
...Houston is the center of American space flight, as it is...
...the location of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center...
...which includes Mission Control...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
This year, Houston celebrates the 50th anniversary of both the name 'Astros', as well as the famous Astrodome, the world's first domed sports stadium.
In 1962, the club was founded as Houston Colt .45s, but that was changed to Astros in 1965 when the team moved indoors to the Astrodome, which was their home until 1999.
The team plays in current Minute Maid Park since 2000.
The nickname 'Astros' reflects Houston's role as the center of the American space program.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is the Manned Spacecraft Center of the NASA, which includes Mission Control that oversees all manned space flights from the USA and training facilities for astronauts.
The Center is located in the Clear Lake Area of Houston.
Starting pitchers this afternoon were righthander Lance McCullers (6-7) for the Astros and righthander Yordano Ventura (13-8) for the Royals.
Rookie Lance McCullers was recalled to the Major League in May coming from Double-A.
He returned to Double-A on August 3, but was recalled again on August 23.
The righthander faced the Royals once this season and was the winning pitcher in that (home) game on June 29, pitching seven innings.
McCullers, who turned 22 on October 2, struckout 129 batters in 125 2/3 inning this season and this afternoon made his first postseason-appearance.
He led all rookies this season in ERA (3.21).
24-year old Yordano Ventura also started the first game of this series, but then pitched only two innings and was the losing pitcher.
After a 49-minute rain-delay, the righthanded Dominican didn't return to the mound in that game.
In the regular season, Ventura started once against the Astros and then was in a home game in July.
Ventura was the winning pitcher, while Dallas Keuchel was the loser.
The first inning of the game remained scoreless, but saw two hit batters.
In the top of the at bat, Lance McCullers hit lead-off hitter Alcides Escobar with a pitch on his hand.
He was forced out, then two outs followed.
In the home half, Yordano Ventura hit Carlos Correa with a pitch just above his elbow with two outs, then Colby Rasmus singled, but both stranded.
The Royals then opened the score in the top of the second inning.
With one out, Mike Moustakas walked, then catcher Salvador Pérez followed with a 2-run homerun.
The Astros answered with a homerun of their own, as Carlos Gómez led off with a homerun in the bottom of the second inning off of fellow-Dominican Ventura.
Gómez didn't start in the first two games of the series, as he was bothered by intercostal strain.
Houston came alongside thanks to another long ball off the bat of a Caribbean player.
With two outs, 21-year old Puerto Rican Carlos Correa homered to make it 2-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, Houston took the lead for the first time in this game.
With two outs, George Springer walked, then scored all the way from first base when rookie Carlos Correa hit a line drive double into the rightfield-corner.
When he started the Wild-Card game last week against the New York Yankees, Correa became the third youngest player in history to start a postseason-game at short stop.
The two players who were younger than Correa were Miguel Cabrera (Florida Marlins, 2003) and Travis 'Stonewall' Jackson (New York Giants, 1924).
In the top of the seventh, the Royals got a runner in scoring position, but he became the victim of the challenge moments later.
With one out, Salvador Pérez was hit by a pitch.
The Royals-catcher, who was hit hard in his mask by a foul ball in the previous at bat, was replaced by pinch-runner Terrance Gore, while Will Harris became the new pitcher for the Astros.
Moments later, Gore stole second base.
With two outs, Gore also went on to steal third base, but that was challenged.
After the review, he was called out, as he briefly was off the base while being tagged.
And with that, Gore was caught stealing for the first time this season.
With that, the inning ended.Carlos Correa, who delivered.
Reliever Kelvin Herrera walked lead-off hitter José Altuve and was replaced by Ryan Madson.
He began with a strikeout, but then gave up back-to-back homeruns to Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus to lift the lead to 6-2.
For Correa, this was his second homerun in the game.
The only player younger than Correa to hit two homeruns in one postseason-game was Andruw Jones, who homered twice for the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 World Series.
The Royals weren't done yet and came back strongly with a 5-run rally!
In the top of the eighth inning, Houston-reliever Will Harris gave up four consecutive singles to Álex Ríos, Alcides Escobar, Ben Zobrist and Lorenzo Cain.
That narrowed the deficit to 6-3 and brought in new pitcher Tony Sipp.
But the rally continued, as Eric Hosmer delivered the fifth consecutive basehit to bring in another run and make it 6-4.
Hereafter, Kendrys Morales hit the ball up the middle for an apparent double-play grounder.
However, short stop Carlos Correa let the ball go by him and was credited with an error.
On the hit by Morales, two runs scored to make it a 6-6 tie!
And there were runners on first and third base with still no outs!
Morales was replaced by pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson, who then stole second base while the batter struckout.
With runners on second and third base, closer Luke Gregerson took over the Houston-pitching.
He walked Drew Butera that loaded the bases again.
Next, the Royals took a 7-6 lead when Hosmer scored on a grounder by Alex Gordon.
The bases were re-loaded again when Álex Ríos walked in his second turn at bat in the inning.
The at bat then finally ended with a strikeout, but the Royals had turned the game its way again.
Now leading by one run, closer Wade Davis took over the pitching for the Royals in the bottom of the eighth inning.
In the regular season, Davis earned 17 saves and was part of a bullpen that was credited with a club-record 56 saves this year.
The righthander retired the side in the eighth.
The Royals completed their comeback by adding two more insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning off of new pitcher Josh Fields.
He walked Ben Zobrist, then gave up a 2-run homerun to Eric Hosmer that gave the Royals a 9-6 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Davis gave up a lead-off single, but then retired the next three batters to end the game and seal the win.
The series goes back to Kansas City!
(October 12)
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