(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Royals win convincingly vs. Astros to move into ALCS!
Nederlands
 KANSAS CITY, Missouri (USA) -
The Kansas City Royals briefly trailed 2-0, but won 7-2 behind the strong pitching of Johnny Cueto on Wednesday-evening (October 14) in Game 5 vs. the Houston Atros to win their American League Division Series, 3-2.
With that, the Royals move into the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, which opens on Friday in Kansas City.
With the win, the Royals now have won ten of their last 13 postseason-games at home.
The Royals had the best home-record this season in the American League with a 51-30.
With the win, the Royals also return to the LCS, which is won last year to reach the World Series, which it then lost to the San Francisco Giants.
The last time before last year that the Royals were in the Play-Offs was in 1985 when it won the World Series.
Earlier today, the Toronto Blue Jays won an action-packed fifth game, full of emotions, 6-3 vs. the Texas Rangers to win their ALDS, 3-2.
With that, Toronto became the first team to reach the American League Championship Series.
Recap Game 5, Blue Jays vs. Rangers
On Thursday, the fifth and final game will be played between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets in the NLDS.
The winner of that game opens the National League Championship Series on Saturday at home against the Chicago Cubs, who won their NLDS vs. St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, 3-1.
Starting pitchers tonight were righthander Johnny Cueto for the Royals and righthander Collin McHugh for the Astros.
29-year old Johnny Cueto came to the Royals in July of this year in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds.
This season, the Dominican was 11-13 after having won 20 games a year ago.
In his career, Cueto is 3-6 against the Astros.
Tonight was his fifth postseason-start and second in this series.
He started Game 2, but had a no-decision in what was a 5-4 win for the Royals.
28-year old Collin McHugh was 19-7 this season and struckout 171 batters in 203 2/3 inning.
In his career, McHugh is 1-0 vs. the Royals.
McHugh was the starting and winning pitcher in Game 1 of the series, a 5-2 win by the Astros at Kansas City.
After being retired in order by Johnny Cueto in the first inning, Houston struck in the second at bat.
Initially, the first two batters were retired again, but then Evan Gattis singled and Luis Valbuena followed with a homerun to make it 2-0.
Cueto then retired the side again in the third.
Houston-starter Collin McHugh walked Ben Zobrist with one out in the first inning, but then was supported with a nice double play.
He then retired the side in the second inning, but gave up a lead-off single to Salvador Pérez in the third.
And again, McHugh got help from his defsense, as another double play followed.
Hereafter, Álex Ríos reached on an infield-hit, but he stranded.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Royals got one run back.
With one out, Lorenzo Cain singled, then scored all the way from first base on a single into centerfield by Eric Hosmer, who later stranded himself.
After giving up the two runs in the top of he second inning, Johnny Cueto retired ten batters in a row, five of with a strikeout.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Royals started to do something back off of McHugh.
Lead-off hitter Salvador Pérez was hit by a pitch, then Alex Gordon followed with a ground-rule double.
That marked the end for McHugh, who was relieved by Mike Fiers.
Pérez and Gordon then both scored when Álex Ríos doubled down the third base-line with the ball just staying on fair territory before curving to foul territory after passing third base.
With that, the Royals had taken a 3-2 lead.
Ríos was brought to third base via a sacrifice bunt by Alcides Escobar, then scored moments later on a sacrifice fly by Ben Zobrist to make it a 4-2 score.
Hereafter, Cueto's dominance continued, as he also retired the side in the sixth, seventh and eighth inning.
With that, he retired 19 batters in a row since the second inning!
He also increased his strikeout-total to eight.
In the bottom of the eighth, Dallas Keuchel took over the pitching for Houston hoping to limit the Royals-scoring, but that didn't happen!
Alcides Escobar led off with a double.
After Ben Zobrist lined out, Keuchel walked Lorenzo Cain intentionationally to set up a force play.
A pop-foul followed, then Kendrys Morales drove the ball into deep centerfield for a 3-run homerun and lift the lead to 7-2!
Closer Wade Davis pitched the ninth inning for the Royals and retired the side.
It began with a strikeout and ended with a great catch against the wall by rightfielder Paulo Orlando, who had entered the game in the previous inning.
The Astros were limited to only two basehits!
In Game 4 on Monday, Correa Correa went 4-for-4 with a double and two homeruns for the Astros.
With that, he became the youngest player ever to hit two homeruns in an American League postseason-game.
The youngest player ever to hit two homeruns in a postseason-game is Andruw Jones, who homered twice in the 1996 World Series, playing for the Atlanta Braves (National League).
With his single, double and two homeruns, Correa had eleven total bases in Monday's game.
That is the most ever by a short stop in a postseason-game.
The previous record was 10, set in the first game of the 2006 ALDS by Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees.
But tonight was a different story.
And with that, the Royals won the series and gets the chance of repeating as American League-champion.
It nows meets the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, starting at home.
(October 14)
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