Rhys Hoskins (back) ready to resume hitting

Even Jung’s outs tonight were hit well, traveling a projected 367 and 350 feet. The latter was a homer in five ballparks and required a nice jumping catch from Wilyer Abreu to prevent it from going off the wall at Globe Life. Jung is 7-for-18 in four games since coming off the injured list on Saturday.

Gore gave up a two-run homer in the first and got a visit from the trainer in the second, but he stayed in and kept the Rangers in the game despite going without a strikeout. Manager Skip Schumaker said afterwards that the issue was muscle spasms in his back and shoulder. Gore is due to make his next start Tuesday against the Mets, though the Rangers could switch things around after an off day Monday. Gore has allowed 17 runs, walked 17 and struck out just 11 over 20 innings in his last five starts.

Eovaldi came into a 3-3 game to start the fifth and went the distance, allowing just one hit in the process. He threw 46 pitches in his second appearance since coming off the IL. The Rangers will probably give him another long relief appearance this weekend before maybe sliding him back into the rotation next week.

Bennett averaged a season-low 91.8 mph with his fastball tonight. He got seven strikeouts anyway, and he gave up just five hard-hit balls. However, every one of those hard-hit balls turned into hits, as did three non-hard-hit grounders. Bennett will face the Guardians on Tuesday.

This was Lynch IV’s best outing since returning to the Royals’ rotation full-time in early August. He leaned a bit more into his changeup against the right-handed heavy Astros’ lineup and mostly located it well fading away from them. Also consistently efficient, he only threw more than 14 pitches in one of his five innings as Houston practically did not threaten at any moment. He’s tentatively scheduled for a two-start week to close the season against the White Sox and Guardians with both starts at home.

On for the ninth inning in a four-run game, Cruz instantly served up a solo home run to Yainer Diaz to make this game a bit closer. Daulton Varsho then singled with two outs to put the tying run in the on-deck circle, but Cruz struck out Jorge Barrosa to end the game. Nate Pearson pitched the eighth inning in what was a five run lead at the time and let the Astros score one too. Pearson came in to face the top of their order, so he still appears to be slightly ahead of Cruz in the Royals’ bullpen pecking order.

Suddenly scorching hot, this was Massey’s 10th multi-hit game since the start of August and he’s slashing .333/.363/.509 over his last 30 games. This is also shaping up to be the first nearly full season where he’ll have an on-base percentage over .300 – it’s currently at .316 – as he’s enjoyed the most productive year of his career to date.

Peña did his part in this game with hits in his first three plate appearances, but his teammates didn’t hold up their end of the bargain as no one was on base to drive in and no one brought him home. He now has a .277 batting average and .799 OPS which are downgrades from last season despite being solid marks for the 28-year-old shortstop.

Javier never really had it in this one. He put himself in trouble instantly by walking the first two batters of the game, but narrowly escaped that jam with two pop-ups. Then the Royals put runners on the corners with one out in the second and again he managed to find a way out of that without a run on the board. Finally the Royals got some runs across in the fourth when John Rave socked a two-run home run. Despite another threat in the sixth, those would be the only two runs on Javier’s final ledger. Just a bit less crisp than he had been lately, Javier struggled to put hitters away and that led to both too many base runners and too much traffic for him to navigate through six innings. He’s tentatively lined up for a two-start week to close the season against both the Mariners and Athletics on the road. Just be advised upcoming schedules are merely a guess this time of year.

There’s really no stopping this guy. In addition to the two homers, Crow-Armstrong hit his eighth triple too. There isn’t a shadow of a doubt that he’s going to win his first MVP award and now with 44 home runs, he has a shot to chase down Kyle Schwarber for the league-high in that department. Apart from the many, many steps forward he’s taken as a power hitter. It’s been amazing to watch Crow-Armstrong’s eye develop this season. The walk he drew in this game was his 78th. He drew 50 combined over the last two full seasons. There’s no better spectacle in the game right now and it’s going to be a treat to watch this version of Crow-Armstrong in the playoffs.