After rain delay, McHugh, ’Stros stifle Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Astros manager A.J. Hinch has a “soft rule” when it comes to a rain delay during a game: If it lasts about an hour, he usually will remove his starting pitcher. Good thing it’s not a hard rule. Hinch opted to keep Collin McHugh on the mound after a 49minute stoppage Thursday night, and the softspoken righty re sponded with a resounding performance. He shut down the Kansas City Royals over six innings for a 52 victory in the opener of their AL Division Series.

“We checked in with him a couple times, but he was never really coming out of that game,” Hinch said of McHugh, a surprise 19game winner this season. “That wasn’t even his best tonight, and he got through a pretty good lineup and battled.”

Three relievers took over and got the game to Luke Gregerson, part of Oakland’s wildcard collapse in Kansas City last year. He handled the ninth for a save.

George Springer and Colby Rasmus went deep for the homerhappy Astros, but they also scored via the same sort of small ball the Royals used in reaching the World Series last season.

“Winning the first game was key,” Astros outfielder Carlos Gomez said. “We did that.”

Yordano Ventura (01) yielded three runs on four hits and a walk in two innings for Kansas City, but did not come back following the delay. Chris Young served up Springer’s home run with one out in the fifth, but tossed four otherwise solid innings of relief.

Game 2 is Friday, when lefty Scott Kazmir takes the mound for Houston against righthander Johnny Cueto in a matchup of pitchers traded days apart this past summer.

“It’s a fivegame series,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “It’s not a death sentence to lose Game 1.” —