Keuchel in control: Astros ace stays perfect at home as Houston takes 2-1 series lead.
Houston will have a chance to move to the Championship Series if it can win Game 4 today.
HOUSTON — Dallas Keuchel’s perfect performance in Houston this year has the upstart Astros one win away from the American League Championship Series.
Keuchel remained undefeated at Minute Maid Park with seven gutsy innings and Chris Carter homered Sunday, leading the Astros to a 4-2 win over the Kansas City Royals for a 2-1 edge in their division series.
The Astros could wrap up the best-of-five matchup with a win over the defending AL champions in Game 4 on Monday.
Houston’s remarkable run comes just two years after the team lost a franchise-worst 111 games in a third-straight 100-loss season.
“I think that success is a lot more sweet when you kind of go through hardship like we did the first couple years that I was up here,” Keuchel said. “But it’s really not a confidence that has grown. It’s been here the whole time … just now that we’re getting to the playoffs and on a national stage … it’s a shock to a lot of people.”
Keuchel, who shut down the Yankees in the AL wild-card game, worked out of jam after jam, giving up five hits and one run with seven strikeouts after going 15-0 at home this season, a modern major league record. He has a 1.45 earnedrun average at Minute Maid Park in 19 starts this year.
“The ball in Dallas Keuchel’s hand brings an awful lot of confidence to a lot of people. Including me,” Astros Manager A.J. Hinch said. “And he came up with some excellent pitches.”
Luke Gregerson gave up a leadoff homer in the ninth to Alex Gordon before finishing off the Astros first playoff game in Houston in 10 years with a four-out save. It was his first save of more than three outs in three years.
Jason Castro drove in two runs with a single in the fifth that made it 2-1. Carlos Gomez, who has a rib muscle strain, started for the first time in the series and had an runscoring single in the sixth.
Carter’s soaring solo homer, which landed on the train tracks atop the wall in left-center and came on Danny Duffy’s first pitch of the seventh, pushed the lead to 4-1.
Carter, batting .199 in the regular season but .455 in the postseason, was a triple shy of the cycle for the Astros, who were hosting a playoff game for the first time since the 2005 World Series.
“After struggling so much this year and just having the success I’ve been having in the last couple of weeks, it’s been nice to contribute and helps us win games,” Carter said.
Lorenzo Cain hit a solo homer in the fourth for the Royals, who are on the brink of elimination after reaching the World Series last season.
Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez fell to 0-3 in his postseason career by giving up five hits and three runs in 52⁄3 innings.
The Astros took the series lead in front of a rowdy, playoff-starved sold-out crowd of 42,674. The group was mostly clad in orange and dotted with fans sporting fake beards in support of the star left-hander who has become all but untouchable at home.