Article author:
Reuters
The Houston Astros will face Kansas City Royals on Tuesday with sluggers Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.
Alvarez teamed up with left-handed batter Tucker to gain momentum by taking advantage of the normally disadvantaged situation before doing normal damage in the bottom of the ninth inning on Monday. To both.
The 7-6 victory over the Astros Royals in the 4 game series opener was pivoted when Alvarez and Tucker faced the Royals left-handed rescuer Amir Garrett. Houston sliced the deficit to 6-5, with Tucker producing a two-run single against Garrett, following eight innings with three runs before Alvarez walked off two batters from Garrett.
It is common to insert a left-handed pitcher to disable left-handed hits. However, Tucker entered the series with a better OPS (.857) for left-handed people than for right-handed people (.838), while Alvarez had .828 OPS for southpaw. Of course, Alvarez entered Rights at 1.166 OPS, and his ninth walk-off home run was off the Royals' right-handed Scott Barlow.
"They are going to bring left-handers to fight left-handers, and our left-handers are pretty much equal to both," said Astros manager Dusty Baker. "It was big, it was really big for our left-handed people to take a walk and get hits."
Right-handed Luis Garcia (6-5, 3.54 ERA) is scheduled for Tuesday. Astros starter. He won each of the last three starts and posted 3.31 ERA during that stretch. Garcia limited the New York Yankees to three hits, two walks and five strikeouts in 51/3 innings with a 2-1 victory on June 30 in his final appearance.
Garcia lost to the Royals on June 4th, allowing a 6-0 road retreat, two runs with four hits and one walk with two strikeouts in seven innings. .. He achieved 2.41 ERA on a one-on-one basis with three career starts with the Royals, allowing 12 hits and 12 strikeouts in 182 2/3 innings.
Right-handed Zack Greinke (2-4, 4.38 ERA) is tasked with starting the Royals on Tuesday. He recorded a series of victories and a quality start, limiting the Texas Rangers to one run with four hits and three strikeouts with six innings, with a 2-1 victory on June 29th. Greinke made his 501st career start and finished 47th. In the history of Major League Baseball.
Greinke scored 2.59 ERA in 11 career starts with the Astros 6-3 and 22 in 52 appearances (51 starts) in 2019-21. It became -10.
After praising his team's play on the streets early Monday, Royals manager Mike Matheny acknowledged the bowel punch that continued later in the day. rice field. The Royals jumped to a 5-0 lead in three innings, and catcher MJ Melendez seemed to add insurance when he scored his second home run, opened his eighth and returned his advantage to three runs.
However, two days after abandoning consecutive home runs in a walk-off loss in Detroit, the Royals fell to the bottom of the ninth inning again.
"It's one of the toughest seasons of the season," said Massenny. "You like the chance we can get it done."
– Field-level media