Kansas City Royals drop series finale in Houston after grabbing early lead vs. Astros

In the swing game that decided whether the Kansas City Royals would have a winning or losing record for their seven-game road trip, they ran into one of the best pitchers in the game ... and their offense couldn’t keep up the high-octane production it had in recent days.

The fact the Royals had to scratch and claw just for two runs also underscores the opportunities they missed in the first two games of their series against the AL West-leading Houston Astros. They held early leads only to see them slip away and result in a pair of losses by a total of three runs.

On Thursday afternoon, the Royals again grabbed a slim early lead against Astros ace Justin Verlander. But Royals starter Kris Bubic gave up a three-run fifth inning that swung the game and put the Royals on their way to a 5-2 loss in front of an announced 36,067 in the finale of a four-game set at Minute Maid Park.

The Astros (54-28) tacked on two against the Royals’ bullpen in the eighth inning to get to five runs and win their third game of the series.

The Royals held leads of at least two runs in each of the four games.

“You can take a negative away, we lost three of four, or you could take the positive,” Royals infielder Nicky Lopez said. “We had leads in all of these games. We could have easily won four games here against probably one of the better teams in the league.

“Obviously, we’ve got to buckle some things up. Tighten some things up. But I take away that we can go toe-to-toe with these teams if everything clicks on all cylinders. Obviously, if we execute a little bit better — you can look back at all that stuff — but we had leads in all four games.”

The Royals (30-51) went 3-4 on their road swing, coming up short in their quest to record a second consecutive winning road trip.

Offensively, the Royals had set a torrid pace recently. They’d scored six runs or more and hit at least two home runs in each of their previous four games, which matched the longest such stretch in franchise history.

Against the Astros, the Royals scored a total of 14 runs in the first three innings in games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

“This whole series, guys had a great offensive — not just approach but execution,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “A couple things could’ve happened right there. We got second and third (in the third inning) and (Emmanuel) Rivera lines out to the shortstop real hard. That’s putting them on their heels a little bit more. It felt like we put pressure on them all day long. The guys were taking really good at-bats.”

Bubic, who matched a season high with 98 pitches, allowed just one hit through the first four innings but gave up three runs on three extra-base hits, including two home runs, in the fifth inning.

He finished the day having allowed three runs on four hits and six walks in 5 1/3 innings. He also struck out five.

“It was frustrating because honestly, regardless of what the box score says, I feel like I had them kind of right where I wanted to in a lot of counts, in a lot of situations,” Bubic said. “I let a couple counts run long and, obviously, that’s when the walks piled up. Looking back, none of those six walks did score. I just got hurt by some damage in that one inning.”

Royals got to Verlander early

Bubic’s six walks matched a season high. Three came on 3-2 counts. He pitched around traffic in the third inning (three walks) and fourth inning (two walks) before he got to the pendulum-swinging fifth inning.

Andrew Benintendi (2-for-4), Rivera (2-for-4), Edward Olivares (2-for-4, two runs scored) and Lopez (2-for-4, RBI) each had two hits for the Royals.

Verlander, who already has a Rookie of the Year, MVP, eight All-Star selections and two Cy Young Awards on his resume, entered the day as a leading candidate for this year’s AL Cy Young Award in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.

The 39-year-old Verlander came into the game tied for the AL lead in wins (10) and ranked second in opponents’ batting average (.183), opponents’ OPS (.527), ERA (2.03) and WHIP (0.83).

In the second, Rivera and Olivares hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. Rivera advanced to third on Olivares’ single, and Olivares advanced to second base on the throw from the outfield to third base in a failed attempt to throw out Rivera.

But Astros catcher Martin Maldonado picked off Rivera as he wandered too far from third base with Lopez batting. That made Lopez’s single into center field a one-run single instead of two.

In the fourth inning, Olivares took advantage of a miscue in the Astros outfield. Olivares singled to center field, but Astros center fielder Jake Meyers didn’t field the ball cleanly and allowed Olivares to advance to third base.

Kyle Isbel followed with a fly ball to the warning track in right field that served as a sacrifice fly as Olivares tagged up and scored.

“Obviously, you try to not think of his name too much,” Lopez said of Verlander. “He’s probably going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But no, it’s always good to jump on a guy that has been doing it for a long time. That’s what we try to do every single day, get an early lead. We did today.”

The Royals scored two runs, one earned, on seven hits and two walks against Verlander. They also struck out eight times in his six innings.

Bubic made a couple key mistakes in the fifth

The Astros got those two runs back and added on another for good measure in the fifth inning. Bubic gave up a one-out double down the left field line to Maldonado, then a first-pitch two-run home run to left field by Jose Altuve. Both hits came against Bubic’s changeup.

Then with the score tied and two outs, Bubic gave up a solo homer to Yordan Alvarez on a fastball over the outer half that Alvarez swatted to the opposite field. The 355-foot homer wouldn’t have made it into the stands in that location at any other ballpark in the majors.

“I just want him to continue to understand how his aggressiveness is going to be very beneficial to him,” Matheny said of Bubic. “I thought his stuff was good. You saw good fastball hitters struggling with his fastball. You saw good off-speed hitters struggling with his secondary stuff.

“That’s the kind of indicator that lets you know, when you’re facing a team that’s hot and a couple guys that can really swing it and you’re still keeping them off-balance. We’ve still just got to get over that hump, the one inning that’s getting him.”

The Royals put two men on in the sixth against Verlander, his last inning, but couldn’t get a run.

They had just one man reach base in the final three innings when Benintendi singled to center with one out in the seventh.

Royals reliever Jose Cuas allowed two runs on three hits and two walks in the eighth inning.