It was nice while it lasted
First loss in a Fister start since April also brings end to 7-game win streak
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The steadiest and most efficient of the Astros’ starting pitchers was just that yet again through six innings Sunday afternoon.
But in a series of big innings, Doug Fister faltered in the seventh against the Kansas City Royals. The Astros failed to complete a three-game sweep of the defending champions with a 6-1 loss at Kauffman Stadium, snapping their season-high, seven-game winning streak.
The defeat marked the first time the Astros lost a Fister start since April 25. Their 10 consecutive wins in games started by the 6-8 sinkerballer matched a franchise record for a single season, last reached 20 seasons ago in starts by Donne Wall.
Fister’s outing Sunday was doomed by three Royals home runs, two from Kendrys Morales. After tossing six innings of onerun ball, the Astros righthander was charged with three of the five runs Kansas City scored in a gamebreaking seventh inning.
“I think the biggest thing was execution,” Fister said. “There in the last inning, I didn’t quite get the job done. You’ve got to give Ian (Kennedy) a lot of credit. He pitched well. He was a lot better than I was today.”
Kennedy and power relievers Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis all but shut down the Astros, who mustered only four hits after recording 30 in the first two games of the series. They struck out 13 times and did not put back-toback hitters on base.
Gattis goes deep
Evan Gattis’ game-tying solo home run in the sixth was the lone blemish against Kennedy, who struck out a season-high 11 over seven innings. The veteran righthander faced only four batters more than the minimum in beating the Astros for the second time this season.
“He had a good fastball,” said Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who had Kennedy (6-6) on his staff with the 2010 Arizona Diamondbacks. “His velocity was up a tick from when we saw him in Houston. “His breaking ball was good. His changeup was OK. He mixed his pitches pretty well. I’ve seen him over the years be an attack-type pitcher, and he did that. He finished at-bats extraordinarily well. Today was his day.”
Fister (8-4) matched Kennedy nearly pitch for pitch through six innings, establishing his pitches early and working the inside of the strike zone. The first of Morales’ homers, in the fourth inning on a 1-1 changeup down in the zone, marked the only damage to that point.
“Having a 7-foot-tall guy throwing a bowling ball sinker is pretty tough to hit,” said Gattis, who caught Sunday. “I just know what it feels like facing him (when he was) with the Nationals. He pitched in and pitched aggressive.”
But in the seventh, Fister was plagued by a couple of ill-placed sinkers. Morales sent one in a 3-0 count over the right-field wall to lead off the inning. Three batters later, the nine-hole-hitting Cheslor Cuthbert took his turn on an 0-1 pitch.
“These are good hitters, and I left them down the middle,” Fister said. “I didn’t get them in, and that definitely hurt me. Other than that, I felt pretty good today.”
Hosmer adds insurance
Eric Hosmer’s tworun double off Tony Sipp tacked on two more runs for the Royals, who batted around in the seventh. Herrera and Davis shut down the eighth and ninth, as they are wont to do, and Kansas City snapped a four-game losing streak.
The Astros boarded a flight for Southern California on Sunday night having lost for only the ninth time in 31 games. They swept their next opponent, the last-place Angels, in a three-game series this past week at Minute Maid Park.
“We leave the series thrilled with the two out of three,” said Hinch, whose team scored 13 runs in each of Friday’s and Saturday’s wins. “Obviously, you love to sweep when you get the opportunity. But against a good team, we put up a big number on the first night (nine first-inning runs) and the second night (seven second-inning runs). They had their breakout inning in the seventh, and we leave with a series win.
“I’m proud of our guys. We’re playing pretty good baseball.”