The Houston Astros were defeated by the Kansas City Royals 11-2 inside Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night. Former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun Spencer Arrighetti got the start, throwing the first three innings in his MLB debut.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Spencer Arrighetti was called up after ace Framber Valdez was put on the injured list. He made the start, and worked two scoreless innings right off the bat, striking out two batters in the process.
In the third inning, Arrighetti ran into some trouble. The Royals’ offense came to life, totaling seven runs in the inning. A combination of walks and hits allowed Kansas City to take advantage.
Kyle Isbel reached first on an infield single and Bobby Witt Jr walked. Vinnie Pasquantino drove both in with an RBI double into left field, then Salvador Perez hit a single, and MJ Melendez walked as well to load the bases. Nelson Velazquez and Adam Frazier brought in three more runs with singles into center and right field and Hunter Renfroe made it a seven-run inning with a double off a 1-2 count. The starting pitcher for the Astros retired Isbel and forced Maikel Garcia to foul out to end the inning but the damage had already been done.
Arrighetti finished his debut with three strikeouts, seven hits, and seven earned runs allowed (all in the third inning) in three innings of work on the mound.
Houston responded at the top of the fourth with a couple of runs. Alex Bregman began the frame with a double and scored off Yainer Diaz’s double in left field. Diaz advanced to third on a fly-out by Chas McCormick and got home on a sac fly by Jose Abreu to make it a five-run difference.
Brandon Bielak made an appearance in the fourth, relieving the former Cajun pitcher and struck out Witt Jr but also gave a solo shot by Pasquantino to make it an 8-2 game in favor of the Royals.
The next run on the board didn’t come till the sixth inning when Pasquantino hit a sac fly to center field to drive in Garcia, who was walked earlier and stole second and third base to put the lead back to seven.
Kansas City added a couple more runs in the eighth as Garrett Hampson hit an RBI double and Pasquantino recorded his fifth RBI of the evening with a single into center field that allowed Hampson to score. The Royals were up by nine and Houston had three more outs to work with as they tried to mount a comeback.
Mauricio Dubon walked and Jon Singleton hit s single with two outs but Kyle Tucker popped out to third for the final out of the game, securing the Royals the 11-2 win. That loss gave the series to KC and dropped the Astros record to 4-9 and in last place in the AL West.
BIG NUMBER: 186
Houston Astros pitchers threw 186 pitches in Wednesday night’s loss to the Royals (Spencer Arrighetti 79, Brandon Bielak 50, Parker Mushinski 54, Tayler Scott 3) compared to 133 thrown by the Kansas City pitching staff.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Vinnie Pasquantino
The Royals’ first baseman had a good outing on Wednesday going three for three from the plate, including a solo home run in the fourth inning, his first of the season. Pasquantino scored two runs and recorded five RBI in the home win over the Astros.
UP NEXT: The Astros and Royals will play one more game in Kansas City tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is at 1:10 and the game can be heard on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.