Daniel Lynch had his best outing as a starter for 2026 picking up a win as the Royals take care of business 5-2 in Houston tonight.
There were a lot of early base runners though not a lot of early scoring in this one. Carter Jensen and Bobby Witt both walked to put Cristian Javier into a quick bind, but he worked through it with no harm done. Similarly, Daniel Lynch gave up a double to open the first and then went K, groundout, and flyout to render Jeremy Pena’s opening salvo moot. The Royals had a couple of singles and no runs in the second. Baserunners were just not finding their way all the way around the bags. Well, until the 4th inning that is.
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In the top of the 4th frame Massey doinked a ball to center that landed before the center fielder could get to it. It was a bad swing and contact, but in just the right sort of way. He was followed by a Nick Loftin flyout, and you started to think maybe Javier would work around another leadoff runner. John Rave had other ideas.
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It wasn’t a bad pitch coming down and in. Rave was able to turn on it and put it in the bleachers down the right field line. The Royals strike first takinga a 2-0 lead.
Daniel Lynch had easily his best start of the season. It was the first time he seemed mostly in command as a starter, in my opinion, this season. There was a walk and a hard it single past Bobby in the 3rd, but otherwise he looked solid all night. His final line was 5IP, 2H, 1BB, 3K, 0ER. After five, he had only thrown 72 pitches without yielding any runs, but the Royals are at the end of the season and do not seem interested in building his pitch count anymore. Craig Kimbrel came on for the 6th with Danny in line for the win. This pitch to strike out Yordan Alvarez in the 1st is a good example of how sharp he looked.
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Cristian was lifted in the 6th and Bryan King took over and continued into the 7th where the Royals mounted another threat. Isaac Collins lead off with a single up the middle and then moved to second when Jensen grounded out down the first base line. Houston decided that with first open they would rather not face Bobby and intentionally walked him. The Royals were still looking for their first hit with runners in scoring position and Vinnie moved that stat to 0-8 with a flyout to center. It was enough to move Collins to third on the tag at least. Enyel De Los Santos came in to face El Capitan who almost singled up the middle, but Jeremy Pena ranged to his left, spun, and threw him out to end the inning with the score still sitting at 2-0.
Matt Quatraro turned to Nolan Hoffman for the 7th and Houston quickly mounted a threat of their own. Two singles, from Jose Altuve and Yainer Diaz, both came in the first four pitches for Hoffman. He did get Christian Walker to flyout but then was pulled with it still at one out and runners on first and second. The Royals brought in Anthony Gose and Houston pinch hit the Royals’ old friend Nelson Velazquez for Cam Smith, though they had been planning to use Lamonte Wade Jr. as the pinch hitter when it was still Hoffman in the game. Velazquez struck out and Dalton Varsho flew out to center as both offenses continued to fail to bring runners in with a combined 0-16 with RISP.
De Los Santos remained in for the 8th and left a ball up and in to Michael Massey to lead off the inning. Massey hit that one off of the Chick-fil-A screen attached to the right field foul pole. Royals get an insurance run and the lead moves to three. Then we finally saw some non-homer runs. It started with two outs when Josh Rojas and Collins walked to set up some runners. Carter Jensen then continued his extra base assault by ripping a ball down the first base line for a for a 2 RBI double and a 5-0 lead. Houston did challenge the call on Collins sliding into home, but it was upheld.
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Nate Pearson got the 8th for KC and like Hoffman immediately put a runner on by walking Jorge Barrosa. Next up was Jeremy Pena, the hero last night and he had 3 hits already in this one, but he flew out harmlessly before Yordan ripped a double to the gap at 111 MPH. Isaac Paredes did not get Houston’s first hit with runners in scoring position, but he did manage a deep enough fly ball to get the sac fly RBI and put them on the board. That one was all they would get in the 8th and it was 5-1 heading into the last inning.
The Royals went silently in the top half then turned the game over to Steven Cruz in a non-save situation to close it out. Diaz led it off with a laser solo shot to left field. It was not a bad pitch and yet it was hit very well. They still needed three more though, and Cruz struck out three of the next four batters to finish the job.
They will play one more in Houston tomorrow with the Royals down 2-3 in the season series. KC will look to split the 2026 Astros season tomorrow in the rubber game as the Astros are now at 76-76 just like the Rangers, who won tonight, as they battle for AL West supremacy.
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