Astros win 10th straight
Starter’s efficient 6 innings bode well as winning streak hits double digits
Dallas Keuchel holds the Royals to two runs; Stassi, Bregman blast three-run homers.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Before a meager audience on an oppressively hot Saturday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium, two lefthanded pitchers sought stability, a return to the majestic form they once embodied amid the profound struggles sullying their 2018 seasons.
Dallas Keuchel and Danny Duffy entered on divergent paths. After the New York Yankees incised Duffy on May 19, his ERA hovered near 7. The four starts since pared it to 5.28. Only six earned runs were yielded by the Kansas City Royals’ opening-day starter in his last 252⁄3 innings.
In that same span, Keuchel allowed 35 hits. His two June starts contained 12 earned runs and 20 hits. After his last one, a 13-hit nightmare against the Texas Rangers, Keuchel vented.
“I know what 3-8 feels like,” he said after a June 5 loss to Seattle in which he allowed four first-inning runs. “And this isn’t it.”
Saturday offered a reprieve, a reversion to the bearded lefthander’s vintage ways. Keuchel operated with his trademark efficiency, pounding sinkers low in the strike zone to pair with a purring slider.
He required 101 pitches to escape six sweltering innings, sweating through two jerseys while working to place his blistering offense back on the field. It burned Duffy for six earned runs in a 10-2 win, the Astros’ 10th in a row.
Franchise milestone
It ensured that, regardless of Sunday’s result, they will complete the best 10-game trip in franchise history, surpassing an 8-2 mark during May 29-June 8, 2017.
“We’re a hard team to beat right now,” manager A.J. Hinch said, “but I like the style of play and the intent is incredible right now.”
This was Keuchel’s first win since May 13. At times it appeared effortless, a vintage, ground ball-focused outing against the Royals’ moribund offense. The Royals entered Saturday with a .545 OPS in June. The loss Keuchel handed them was their 11th in 12 games.
Twelve of the 13 outs they placed in play against Keuchel were ground balls. His twoseam fastball stayed low and played to Mark Wegner’s strike zone. Eleven of the 30 two-seamers Keuchel tossed were called strikes. Eight others were put into play at an 85.2 mph average exit velocity.
The command of his slider was Keuchel’s most precise in a month. He threw it more frequently than any of his other four pitches Saturday, eliciting seven swings and misses.
“I don’t usually toot my own horn, but there were a few that I could tell the shape out of my hand were back to normal movement,” Keuchel said. “If we can keep that going, I think it’s going to be a totally different ballgame.”
His fourth pitch was an elevated changeup Whit Merrifield scorched for a single to open the game. Keuchel left him at third base. Mike Moustakas waved over three sliders for a first out. Hunter Dozier watched a fullcount two-seamer paint the inner half for a third — two of Keuchel’s six strikeouts.
Bregman has four RBIs
No other Royal reached scoring position until the fifth. During a 31-pitch jaunt through the second, third and fourth innings, Keuchel ceded just a third-inning single to Drew Butera and a fourth-inning walk to Dozier.
Alex Gordon rolled over Keuchel’s next pitch, a sinker that stayed down. Alex Bregman fielded it effortlessly for a 5-6-3 double play, rendering the walk harmless.
“That’s the Dallas Keuchel that he expects himself to be and that we’ve become accustomed to,” said Bregman, who homered in the ninth inning and drove in four runs. “It’s fun when he pitches like that. Keeps all of us involved.
“I mean, we scored 10 runs and were out of here in less than three hours. You know if anyone on our team pitched that game it was probably Dallas Keuchel.”
The two runs Keuchel ceded were unearned, the consequence of Carlos Correa’s rare misplay. He could not corral Butera’s two-out chopper in the fifth, only the second error of the season for a shortstop who holds a franchise-record, 70game errorless streak.
The Royals seized the sliver of momentum it created. Ryan Goins dropped a single to right field. Merrifield drove both he and Butera in with a first-pitch double inside the left-field line, whittling Keuchel’s lead to two runs.
Moustakas followed with a single, too, for a third consecutive hit off Keuchel. Salvador Perez arrived as the go-ahead run. Keuchel raced ahead 0-2 with two sliders. Perez fouled two four-seamers. Keuchel elevated a third one. Perez took a mighty hack at the 89.7 mph pitch to which he could not catch up.
“I’ve been feeling good, just trying to ride it out and continue to make good pitches,” Keuchel said. “I was fortunate to make quite a few quality pitches today.”
Keuchel exited the mound and descended into the dugout as Duffy returned. Marwin Gonzalez stroked a single after Yuli Gurriel walked. Max Stassi, a tormenter of southpaws, arrived. He crushed an elevated 0-1 changeup into the Astros’ bullpen. Stassi circled the bases, the lethal blow of another win in the streak settling 380 feet away.