For once the Royals finally had something go their way.  They beat the Houston Astros 4-3 in 11 innings thanks to a great call by the umpires that gave the Royals another life.

In the 9 th down 2-1, Mike Jacobs hit a ball to left field that appeared to be caught by Jason Michaels who threw back to first to double off Mitch Maier who was standing on third.  The umpires talked it over and said Michael did catch the ball, but only after it glanced off the side of the Crawford boxes in left.  David DeJesus singled to tie the game at 2-2.  In the 10 th inning the Royals scored again on a Brayan Pena home run, but Joakim Soria could not close out the game as Houston tied it at 3-3 in the bottom of the 10 th .  Then in the 11 th , Miguel Olivo homered to lead off and John Bale closed it out for the Royals second win in a row.

Luke Hochevar’s solid outing was almost an afterthought with all of the action taking place from the ninth inning on, but he went seven innings allowing just two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out four.  The question all season is going to be how many times can the Royals scarp and claw for runs?  Again, runs were hard to come by against Houston’s starter Roy Oswalt who struck out eight to go along with his seven hits and two walks while allowing just a run in six innings.