Seth Lugo pitched eight shutout innings for Kansas City on Friday as the host Royals extended their winning streak to five games with a 2-0 victory over the Houston Astros.
Lugo (2-3) ended a three-start losing streak with his best effort in the young season as he struck out a season-best eight in the opener of a three-game series. He pitched into the eighth inning for the first time, yielding just one walk and a season-low three hits.
Lugo, last season’s runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award, retired the first 11 batters he faced before Isaac Paredes took him to right for an opposite-field double. Lugo dropped his ERA from 3.90 to 3.08.
Hayden Wesneski (1-2) scattered eight hits in five-plus innings. He struck out one, but the Royals got both runs off the right-hander by manufacturing them.
Kansas City’s Drew Waters went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, and he scored after the second one. In the fifth inning, he moved to third on Freddy Fermin’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Kyle Isbel’s sacrifice fly.
Hunter Renfroe’s sacrifice fly an inning later scored Vinnie Pasquantino.
Paredes accounted for two of Houston’s hits, but the Astros’ best chance to get to Lugo came in the sixth.
Cam Smith walked to start the inning and moved to second on Jake Meyers’ sacrifice bunt. Smith took third on Jose Altuve’s groundout, but he remained there when Yordan Alvarez flied out to right field to end the inning.
Houston catcher Victor Caratini had a leadoff single in the eighth off Lugo, but he was erased when Smith hit into a double play. Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. made a diving stop on the hard-hit grounder to initiate the double play.
Lucas Erceg pitched a perfect ninth to get his first save of the season.
Witt singled three times in four at-bats to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, the best current streak in the majors.
–Field Level Media
