HOUSTON
The cracking sound of wood meeting baseball echoed across the cavernous inside of Minute Maid Park. The ominous sound of silence came next.
In the top of the eighth inning on Wednesday night, Salvador Perez took a vicious hack at a curveball and roped a two-run blast into right edge of the Crawford Boxes in left field. The swing proved the decisive blow in the Royals’ 4-2 victory over the Houston Astros.
For the second straight night, Kansas City tamed its old postseason foe with a potent combination of gutsy starting pitching and reliable relief work.