Astros and Royals meet to determine series winner

Kansas City Royals (25-19, third in the AL Central) vs. Houston Astros (21-20, third in the AL West)

Houston; Wednesday, 8:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Michael Lorenzen (3-3, 3.57 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 40 strikeouts); Astros: Colton Gordon (0-0)

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Astros -139, Royals +118; over/under is 8 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals meet on Wednesday with the three-game series tied 1-1.

Houston is 21-20 overall and 14-9 at home. Astros hitters have a collective .379 slugging percentage to rank 10th in the AL.

Kansas City has a 9-12 record in road games and a 25-19 record overall. Royals hitters are batting a collective .242, which ranks seventh in the AL.

The matchup Wednesday is the sixth time these teams match up this season. The Royals hold a 3-2 advantage in the season series.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jake Meyers leads the Astros with a .308 batting average, and has six doubles, a triple, two home runs, 12 walks and 14 RBIs. Jeremy Pena is 15 for 43 with two home runs and nine RBIs over the last 10 games.

Bobby Witt Jr. has 17 doubles, a triple and five home runs while hitting .312 for the Royals. Kyle Isbel is 10 for 28 with a double, a triple and two home runs over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Astros: 5-5, .289 batting average, 3.81 ERA, outscored opponents by 11 runs

Royals: 7-3, .277 batting average, 2.74 ERA, outscored opponents by 11 runs

INJURIES: Astros: Hayden Wesneski: 15-Day IL (elbow), Yordan Alvarez: 10-Day IL (hand), Forrest Whitley: 15-Day IL (knee), Spencer Arrighetti: 15-Day IL (thumb), Luis Garcia: 60-Day IL (elbow), Cristian Javier: 60-Day IL (elbow), J.P. France: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Taylor Trammell: 10-Day IL (calf), Pedro Leon: 10-Day IL (knee)

Royals: Alec Marsh: 60-Day IL (shoulder), James McArthur: 60-Day IL (elbow), Hunter Harvey: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Sam Long: 15-Day IL (elbow), Dairon Blanco: 10-Day IL (achilles), Kyle Wright: 15-Day IL (shoulder)

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.