Yusei Kikuchi struck out 12 batters in seven innings to help the Houston Astros secure a 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.
Kikuchi (7-9) improved to 3-0 with a 2.57 ERA since joining Houston just before the trade deadline. He allowed five hits and gave up just one run, which came on a fielder’s choice grounder after two singles in the seventh inning. He threw 101 pitches, with 75 strikes, and didn’t walk any batters.
“He was really, really, really good,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He had all his pitches working, both sides of the plate. Our starting pitching has been phenomenal for a while, and Kikuchi just adds another level of quality of starts that we’ve been getting from these guys.”
Kikuchi celebrated with a fist pump after getting his 12th strikeout to end the seventh inning.
“The last couple of games, the starters have been doing really well so I wanted to do my part,” Kikuchi said. “The defensive plays behind me, especially (Ben) Gamel in right field, were huge. Just watching that got me pumped up today.”
Ryan Pressly pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his third save of the season.
Kikuchi didn’t get any run support until the Astros scored five runs in the sixth inning, knocking Royals starter Cole Ragans (10-9) out of the game. Yainer Diaz hit a two-run single, and Jeremy Peña added a two-run triple during the inning, with Peña also scoring on a wild pitch.
Ragans was impressive for most of the first five innings, giving up only one hit and matching a Royals franchise record with eight consecutive strikeouts. The previous record was set by Blake Stein in 2001 at Milwaukee.
