{"id":438445,"date":"2026-09-17T04:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T04:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/438445\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T04:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T04:44:11","slug":"rave-and-massey-homer-as-royals-beat-astros-5-2-dropping-houston-into-first-place-tie-with-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/438445\/","title":{"rendered":"Rave and Massey homer as Royals beat Astros 5-2, dropping Houston into first-place tie with Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON — – John Rave<\/a> hit a two-run homer, Michael Massey<\/a> added a solo shot and the Kansas City Royals<\/a> beat Houston 5-2 on Wednesday night, dropping the Astros into a first-place tie with the Texas Rangers<\/a> in the AL West.<\/p>\n

The Astros own the tiebreaker over the Rangers with both teams at 76-76, but this is the first time since Aug. 24 that Houston has not been alone in first place. Whichever team doesn’t win the division could still make the playoffs as a wild card.<\/p>\n

Rave’s sixth homer came in the fourth inning off Astros starter Cristian Javier<\/a> (2-6).<\/p>\n

Massey led off a three-run eighth inning with his 12th homer of the season and third hit of the night. After the Royals scored another run on a throwing error by right fielder Jorge Barrosa<\/a>, Carter Jensen<\/a> capped the frame with an RBI double.<\/p>\n

Daniel Lynch IV<\/a> (6-5) allowed two hits and struck out three in five scoreless innings. Craig Kimbrel<\/a> worked around a one-out single to complete a scoreless sixth.<\/p>\n

Nolan Hoffman<\/a> allowed singles to two of the three batters he faced in the seventh inning, but Anthony Gose<\/a> ended the threat by striking out pinch-hitter Nelson Velazquez<\/a> and getting Daulton Varsho<\/a> to fly out.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Pe\u00f1a was 3 for 4 with a double, his second consecutive three-hit game for Houston. Yainer Diaz<\/a> homered in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Javier allowed two runs on five hits over 5 1\/3 innings for Houston.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

RHP Seth Lugo<\/a> (7-8, 4.99 ERA) will start for the Royals when the series concludes on Thursday. RHP Miguel Ullola<\/a> (0-0, 3.38) will start for the Astros as an opener.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

See AP’s full MLB coverage here<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON — – John Rave hit a two-run homer, Michael Massey added a solo shot and the Kansas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[151931,7000,56,5513,58,57,61434,7677],"class_list":["post-438445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-151931","tag-espn","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}