CJ Abrams (neck) returns to Wednesday’s lineup

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.

Imanaga had a special feel for his splitter in this one. He was commanding it very well in the early innings, so he continued to push its usage up as the game wore on. On the season, he’s thrown it 34% of the time. In this game, it was at a nearly 50% usage rate and forced an eye-popping 14 swings-and-misses. That’s tied for the third-most whiffs from that pitch in a single outing this season and each of the top three marks have come in the last month. He’s incredibly difficult to hit when that pitch is toppling over like it has been lately and he’s scheduled to face the Marlins next week in his regular season finale.

Down big by the fifth inning, the Braves did their best to get back into this game late but never got particularly close. Acuña Jr. did his best to help with that pursuit, first scorching a double and coming around to score in the sixth and then singling with one out in the eighth. It’s been an uncharacteristically slow – relative to his lofty standards – season at the plate for him with just 18 home runs, 20 stolen bases, and a .798 OPS in 100 games that’s including multiple trips to the injured list with two left hamstring strains.

Ritchie dealt with a lot of chaos early in this game and was ineffective overall. In the first inning, he walked two batters and gave up a double but got out of that inning with just one run on the board because of a double play and Alex Bregman being thrown out trying to take an extra base. Then he let up a double to start the second, but wriggled out of that jam with two timely strikeouts. Solo home runs from Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman followed in the next two frames and a three-run rally in the fifth and Ritchie was yanked then and there. He now has a 5.03 ERA as a rookie and it would be difficult to see the Braves trusting him as part of their playoff staff. Before then, he could get another start against the Reds at home next week given all the uncertainty in Atlanta’s rotation.

It was Yelich’s only hit in five at-bats, and it almost seemed like an accident, as he slapped a fastball down the third base line for what he thought was going to be a foul ball. It stayed fair, though, and the Brewers went on to win a game in which they were outhomered three to zero.