Jeremy Pena followed a two-run single by Yainer Diaz with a two-run triple in support of Yusei Kikuchi, who struck out 12 over seven strong innings as the Houston Astros beat the visiting Kansas City Royals 5-2 on Saturday.
Diaz and Pena struck the decisive blows against Royals left-hander Cole Ragans (10-9), who allowed just two baserunners and dominated the Houston lineup through five innings before coming undone in a five-run sixth.
Ragans matched a franchise record with eight consecutive strikeouts through the third, doing so after Jose Altuve drove a fly ball out to center to open the bottom of the first. Ragans struck out Yordan Alvarez, Diaz, Pena, Jake Meyers, Victor Caratini and Mauricio Dubon in succession — all swinging — before getting called third strikes on Zach Dezenzo and Ben Gamel in the third.
Ragans surrendered an opposite-field single to Alvarez in the fourth and issued a one-out walk to Caratini in the fifth. When Gamel opened that frame with a sharp single to right, the wheels suddenly came off Ragans’ wagon.
Altuve (hit by pitch) and Alvarez (walk) reached safely following Gamel before Diaz smacked a ground ball past Bobby Witt Jr. and into left, plating Gamel and Altuve and spotting the Astros a 2-0 lead. Pena fell behind 0-2 in the count before blasting a knuckle curveball off the wall in center that drove home Alvarez and Diaz, who’d just executed a double steal.
Pena, who chased Ragans with his triple, scored when Royals reliever Steven Cruz unleashed a wild pitch to Jake Meyers. Ragans allowed five runs on four hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts. It marked the third time this season that Ragans has posted double-digit strikeouts.
The Astros improved to 6-0 behind Kikuchi (7-9), who recorded exactly 17 outs in four of his first five starts since joining Houston at the trade deadline. Kikuchi allowed five hits and did not walk a batter. He carried a shutout into the seventh before surrendering back-to-back singles to Freddy Fermin and MJ Melendez, with Fermin scoring on a Nick Loftin fielder’s-choice grounder.
Witt slugged his 29th home run with two outs in the eighth off reliever Hector Neris.
The Royals have dropped four consecutive games, while the Astros have won four in a row.
