Kansas City Royals beaten by Houston Astros 7-9 – MLB Update
Kansas City Royals were beaten by Houston Astros 7-9 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas on Monday, June 18 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Royals’ starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez gave up six hits and four runs in six innings to take his third loss of the season. He will be hoping to put up a solid show on his next appearance to lower his 5.70 ERA.
His counterpart from Houston Astros, J.A. Happ pitched with great control and accuracy to improve to 5-7 this season. Allowing just four hits and two runs in six plus innings, he played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash.
"It was a good way to start the day off," Bixler said of his homer. "I was happy to continue that and put it together for the whole day. So it worked out well."
"It paid off today," Bixler said of adding runs late. "It just kind of showed you that especially at this level, guys don't give in and things happen. I'm glad we were able to do that in the eighth and hold onto it for J.A. Happ."
"Sanchez did all right," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. "He kept us in the game. The two pickoff throws hurt him."
Second Baseman Brian Bixler hit his first career home run on Monday evening to help the Astros level score 1-1 in the first inning. Centre Fielder Justin Maxwell had also an excellent outing as he scored on a throwing error in the first to put Houston 2-1 ahead.
Maxwell showed great hitting skills and he continued to put pressure on Sanchez. He walked in the fourth inning to extend his team’s lead to 4-1. Brian Bogusevic and Maxwell also homered in the eighth as the Astros took complete control of the situation.
The Royals fought hard right till the end of the game with Billy Butler earning an RBI single to get his team within 9-7 but Astros relief pitcher Xavier Cedeno retried Mike Moustakas to secure first save of his career.
Tags: