Astros 6, Royals 2: Alvarez’s 40th and Five Homers Take the West

Five solo shots, a 40th homer, and first place again

September 17, 2026 - Houston - Jeremy Peña hit the first pitch of the Astros' night over the left-field wall. Daulton Varsho went to right-center in the second. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Yordan Alvarez went back-to-back in the fifth. Taylor Trammell added the fifth homer in the eighth. All five were solo. None of them needed a runner on.

The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 at Daikin Park. Houston is 77-76. Texas lost 4-3 to Boston on the same night, so the Astros lead the American League West by a game with the tiebreaker and nine games left. The ESPN recap called it a season high of five homers. The MLB recap said Alvarez became the fifth player in franchise history to reach 40, the first since Alex Bregman had 41 in 2019.

Roof closed. 72 degrees. First pitch 6:15 p.m. Attendance 34,853. The game lasted 2 hours, 24 minutes. Houston had 11 hits. Kansas City had three. That is the shape of a 6-2 that never felt like a slugfest even with five balls leaving the yard.

Kansas City scored first. It lasted half an inning.

Carter Jensen walked. Bobby Witt Jr. walked. Jac Caglianone was hit. Miguel Ullola had not recorded an out. Maikel Garcia bounced into a double play, Jensen scoring. 1-0 Royals. Bryan King came on, got Michael Massey, and threw 1 1/3 scoreless. He got the win. Ullola's line is two-thirds of an inning, two walks, a hit batter, and one run. The bullpen game started messy. It did not stay that way.

Peña answered in the bottom half, his 20th homer. The MLB recap said he is the fifth Astro this year to reach 20, joining Alvarez, Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith, and Christian Walker. It also said Peña went 8-for-13 with three homers in the three-game set. Thursday was 2-for-5 with the homer and two RBI.

Varsho's 12th made it 2-1 in the second. Then the fifth, against Seth Lugo. Wade homered to right, his fourth. Alvarez homered to right, his 40th. 4-1. The MLB recap said Alvarez is one behind Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero (41) for the AL lead. He is tied with Chandler Simpson at .311 for the batting title and second in RBI (99) behind Pete Alonso (102). A Triple Crown is still a sentence you can type without laughing. It is also nine games from being a sentence you cannot.

Peña singled Trammell home in the sixth. 5-1. Jensen singled John Rave home in the eighth. 5-2. Trammell homered to right off Alex Lange, his eighth. 6-2. Five homers. Six runs. The extra run was a single, not a sixth ball into the seats.

Pecko’s 5 2/3, then Abreu and Hader

Ethan Pecko threw 5 2/3 innings after King. Three hits. One run. Zero walks. Four strikeouts. Seventy-one pitches. He got a hold. Kansas City's only earned run against him was Jensen's eighth-inning single, and by then Houston had already stacked the five-homer night. Bryan Abreu got a third of an inning. Josh Hader threw a scoreless ninth. Three hits allowed as a staff. One walk after Ullola's first-inning mess.

Lugo (loss) went five innings. Eight hits. Four runs. One walk. Five strikeouts. Four of the five homers came off him. Seventy-six pitches. That is a line a rotation cannot live with in September, and Kansas City is 67-86. Jensen went 2-for-3 with a walk, a run, and an RBI. Rave doubled. The rest of the order gave Houston three hits to work with. Witt walked and did not hit.

Manager Joe Espada, per the MLB recap, was not interested in a close MVP race as a reason to hedge: "Our club, without him, would be a completely different record. Credit to our players. This is a team, everybody contributes, but without Yordan we could be in a completely different spot. That's why he's the MVP to this team and he's the Most Valuable Player to this league. I'm very biased." Peña, per the same recap: "Obviously, Yordan is our horse. When he goes we go."

Nine games, a one-game lead, and the tiebreaker

Houston took two of three from Kansas City. Texas wasted an eighth-inning lead in Arlington. The West is a one-game race with Houston holding the extra game if they finish tied. Nine games is enough to lose that. It is also enough to make 40 homers look like the number that carried a club back over .500.

Alvarez went 2-for-4. Wade went 2-for-4 with a homer and a double. Trammell went 1-for-3 with a walk. Varsho's homer was his only hit. Five different names. Five balls in the seats. The AL West lead is the part that travels to Friday, when Peter Lambert is listed against Atlanta.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Houston at 13 team fantasy points, tied for fourth on Thursday. Alvarez, Peña, Wade, and Trammell each had 7 hitting FP. Varsho had 5. Kansas City finished at minus-3.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*