Major League Baseball

Royals 4, Astros 2

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:36 a.m. ET

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HOUSTON -- Salvador Perez blasted a two-out, two-run home run in the eighth inning, breaking a tie and leading the Kansas City Royals to a 4-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday.

The Royals won for the fourth time in five games.

Perez took a 1-2 pitch from Ken Giles (0-1) over the left-center-field wall after the Astros reliever walked Alex Gordon. Earlier in the game, Perez lifted a sacrifice fly that scored the Royals' second run. He boosted his season RBI total from one to four.

Perez's homer made a winner out of Luke Hochevar (1-0) despite the fact that Hochevar allowed the tying run on a run-scoring double by Jose Altuve in the seventh.

Joakim Soria retired all three batters he faced in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

Dominating pitching ruled the first half of the game as the Royals' Yordano Ventura and the Astros' Scott Feldman dueled through five scoreless frames.

The Royals (6-2) put runners on the corners with one out in the sixth on consecutive singles by Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer. Kendrys Morales then hit a slow bouncer between the mound and third base that Feldman fielded and then threw wildly over Tyler White's head at first base for an error that allowed Cain to score.

Feldman then intentionally walked Alex Gordon to load the bases, and Perez hit a sacrifice fly to left to plate Hosmer and expand Kansas City's lead to 2-0.

The Astros (3-6) got one of those runs back in the bottom of the frame via a solo home run onto the train tracks above left field by Altuve. Houston loaded the bases with two outs on a walk, a single by White and an error behind second base by Escobar, but Ventura coaxed Carlos Gomez into a check-swing grounder to second base to end the threat.

Castro tripled with one out in the seventh off Hochevar and came home on a hustling double by Altuve.

NOTES: The Astros faced a right-handed starter in all eight of their games this season and are scheduled to face righties in their first 13 contests. Overall, the Astros had just 26 plate appearances against lefties in their first eight games before Wednesday and are hitting .333 (8-for-24) in those opportunities. ... The Royals, the best road team in the major leagues over the past three seasons, are 2-1 away from home in 2016. Kansas City compiled a major-league-best 133-110 road record from 2013-15, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers by two games in that span. ... Heading into Wednesday's game, Houston 1B Tyler White had more hits (13) and home runs (3) than any Astros player has ever collected in his first eight career games. ... Four of the first five wins for the Royals entering play Wednesday were by one run. Kansas City was 23-17 in one-run contests a year ago.

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