KANSAS CITY Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Jersey , Mo. — Four Houston Astros starting pitchers have won at least eight games this season. They are Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton, Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers.
The lone exception is left-hander Dallas Keuchel, the 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner. Keuchel, who pitches Saturday against the Kansas City Royals, is 3-8 with a 3.71 ERA in 14 starts this season.
Keuchel has allowed 90 hits, including a dozen home runs, and walked 32 while striking out 81 in 82 1/3 innings. He has a 3-1 career record against the Royals in six starts. He had a no-decision against them last year, allowing two hits and one run in seven innings.
If Keuchel is the weak link in the Astros’ rotation, that is a fearsome five.
“The Gerrit Cole addition was great and Verlander was a great addition to them last year,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “The thing that is so important is they make these deals in hopes they can get them over the hump with a World Series, and it did.
“They’ve got a fantastic rotation. They’ve got a fantastic group of young talented, athletic players. They’re a good team. They’re a tough match.”
The Astros (46-25) reminded the Royals just how good they are with a 7-3 victory on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium. Evan Gattis, who drove in five Houston runs on Tuesday and Wednesday in Oakland, hit a sixth-inning grand slam.
The Royals (22-47) took a hit besides in the loss column when starting right fielder Jorge Soler left with a fractured first left metatarsal in the sixth inning. He stumbled out of the blocks while grounding out. It is the same foot Soler fouled a ball off last Friday in Oakland and then did not play again until Tuesday.
Yost said he did not know if the injuries are related. He said Soler would be out for an extended period. The Royals will make a roster move Saturday with Soler, who was on crutches in the clubhouse after the loss, headed for the disabled list.
Both clubs made roster moves Friday. Astros left-hander Reymin Guduan was placed on the paternity list. They recalled infielder Tyler White from Triple-A Fresno, where he was hitting .338 with a 1.023 OPS in 62 games.
The Royals purchased the contract of right-handed reliever Brandon Maurer from Triple-A Omaha. In his past seven outings, he ran off a scoreless streak of 12 2/3 innings while striking out 10 and holding opponents to a .163 batting average with one extra-base hit.
Left-hander Danny Duffy, who is 3-6 with a 3.28 ERA in 14 starts, is the Royals’ probable starter Saturday. He is coming off his best start of the season, tossing seven scoreless innings last Saturday in Oakland, allowing three hits and striking out a career high 10.
Duffy is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in eight outings, four of them starts, against the Astros. He owns a 2.08 ERA in his last two starts against the Astros.
The Royals will attempt to snap a four-game losing streak. They have dropped 10 of their last 11 and are 10-24 at home. They’ve scored just 26 runs in 13 games in June, when they are hitting .183.
The Astros have the best road record (27-11) in the majors. They have won their last eight road games, three shy of the club record set last year. They have logged at least a dozen hits in five straight games, the second longest streak in franchise history and trailing only a seven-game streak set in 2007.
In a story June 27 about a sports exhibit at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the memorial and museum president was named Alice M. Greenwood. Her surname is Greenwald.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Museum exhibit highlights impact of sports after 9/11
New exhibit at 9/11 Memorial & Museum highlights impact of sports after 2001 attacks
By MELISSA MURPHY
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – A new exhibit at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum highlights the impact of sports after the 2001 attacks, including the Mets’ win in New York’s first major sporting event after 9/11.
”Comeback Season: Sports After 9/11” explores how sports helped unite the country and features interviews with athletes such as Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza.
”In that first game back, the home team came back and won,” said Piazza, whose two-run homer for the Mets in the eighth inning on Sept. 21, 2001, lifted the team past Atlanta. ”That’s exactly the lesson the city, the country and the world needed to see that night.”
”When that ball went over the wall, I saw my children smile for the very first time since they lost their dad,” she said in an oral history recording.
The exhibit covers various sports, including football, hockey, basketball, soccer, NASCAR, the New York City Marathon and the 2002 Winter Olympics. The story is told in nine chapters, using archival sports footage and testimonies from athletes, coaches and 9/11 families.
It opens with the U.S. Open final of Venus vs. Serena Williams on the weekend before the attacks. It moves through the cancellation of events, including the first stoppage of Major League Baseball since the death of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945.
The Mets’ and Giants‘ stadiums were used as recovery and supply sites after the attacks. Piazza’s jersey, his batting helmet with ”NYPD” taped on the back and John Franco’s FDNY hat are on display.
So is Pat Tillman’s Army Ranger uniform, on loan from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tillman, an Arizona Cardinal player, enlisted after 9/11 and died in Afghanistan.
New York Rangers Mike Richter, Eric Lindros and Mark Messier are pictured during a visit to thank rescue workers at ground zero on Sept. 16.
There’s a quote from Mets manager Bobby Valentine: ”When we went down there the first time, you could still smell it. You could still feel it. You could see the filth on the faces of the workers. When they saw us http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-lorenzo-carter-jersey , their faces lit up. You could see their teeth through their black masks.”
A letter from 10-year-old Brielle Saracini to Derek Jeter dated Sept. 14 is on display. She explains to her favorite player that her father, Victor Saracini, was a pilot of hijacked Flight 175 that crashed into the south tower. Soon after, Jeter called to invite Brielle, her sister and mother to a game.
In the World Series, the Yankees hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks among heightened security for Games 3, 4, 5 at Yankee Stadium, just 14 miles from ground zero. Video shows Jeter hitting a walk-off home run in Game 4 and jumping into the arms of teammates at home plate.
Michael Jordan is pictured with members of the military before a Washington Wizards vs. Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 30. Jordan had pledged his entire year’s salary to the 9/11 relief effort.
”Through the lens of sports, this exhibition celebrates the strength of the human spirit and our capacity to come together and support one another through unimaginable grief,” 9/11 Memorial & Museum President Alice M. Greenwald said. ”This story provides additional points of entry into the complex story of 9/11 to better understand our history and the impact it had on our world today, to reflect on our own lived memories from that time and to feel inspired by stories about the best of humanity.”
The exhibit was sponsored in part through the support of the Anheuser-Busch Foundation, MLB, the New York Mets and their chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon. It runs through the summer of 2019.