All Aboard the Singles Train As Royals Beat Astros 7 - 3

Perhaps having been emboldened by the train atop the wall in left, the Royals decided they were going to try to beat the hometown Astros by going station to station. The Royals scattered 13 singles and four walks across Tuesday's nine innings.

While "Kenny" Bud Norris was in the ballgame, this approach yielded no substantive results as the Royals failed to plate the seven base-runners Buuud allowed, thanks in part to the fact that Elliot Johnson and Alex Gordon ran into outs on the base-paths. Norris controlled the Royals with ease, letting just one runner reach second base in his six innings. With his pitch count at just 88, Norris exited the game in the seventh with a back injury, which is when scoring opportunities opened up for the Royals.

In the seventh, Alcides Escobar pinch-hit singled in Eric Hosmer and was immediately followed by David Lough, who also had an RBI-single to draw the Royals to a 3 - 2 deficit. The next inning saw the Royals piece together a four-run rally behind three singles and two walks--one of which was a George Kottaras bases-loaded walk. Of the eleven Royals who batted in the second game of this series, nine reached base with just Francoeur (who scored a run as a pinch-runner and then struck out in the ninth) and Getz failing to get in on the action. Alex Gordon went 3-for-4 with a walk and a diving grab in left on a sinking Altuve liner. Hosmer, Billy Butler, and Johnson each had two hits (though one of Johnson's was erased when he tried to stretch a single into a double and was thrown out at second). Lorenzo Cain singled and drew a walk, and Kottaras walked twice.

For his part, Wade Davis allowed twelve Houston base-runners in five innings, striking out six but walking four and allowing Jimmy Paredes to hang a three-run dong off of him in the fourth. Davis was neither efficient nor impressive in yet another middling outing from the man who may not deserve the nickname "Cool Stuff" anymore.

The win snapped a four-game skid and marked just the fourth win in the Royals' last 15 contests. It did get the Royals back to .500, so that happened.