Benny stays hot in win by putting 'everything together'

HOUSTON -- After two days of watching the Astros storm back and overtake leads the Royals' offense had built early, it went without saying Wednesday night that Kansas City had to keep adding on despite the four-run lead it had after three innings.

In the ninth inning, the Royals’ most consistent hitter made sure that happened. Andrew Benintendi drove a ball 102.5 mph to center field to score Nicky Lopez and start a two-run insurance inning in the Royals’ 7-4 win over the Astros at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night.

“We joke around, it’s just a walk and two hits every game for him,” Hunter Dozier said about Benintendi. “He’s been doing it every day.”

On his 28th birthday, Benintendi walked twice and knocked two hits to extend his on-base streak to 15 games. He’s also reached safely at least twice in a career-high nine games with seven multi-hit efforts. He’s now hitting .313 with a .387 on-base percentage this season.

In his final year before free agency, the Gold Glove left fielder is the Royals’ biggest trade chip as the Trade Deadline looms. But Benintendi isn’t easily distracted, and much like the approach to hitting that line drive in the ninth inning, he keeps things as simple as they can be.

He knew Astros reliever Hector Neris’ go-to pitch against lefties is the splitter, so Benintendi readied himself for that while staying on top of the fastball. When he got the splitter up in the zone, he drove it to center field.

“Finally, I think I’m putting everything together that I’ve learned the past few years,” Benintendi said. “Learned a lot last year, incorporating it into my swing this year. I’m using my legs a lot better this year than I think I ever have.

“Just constantly looking at where the catchers are set up and seeing where they’re trying to go, then also looking at where guys are playing in the field. Taking what the defense gives you, and just trying to stay within myself and keep things simple.”

Benintendi scored on MJ Melendez’s RBI single moments later and handed a three-run lead to closer Scott Barlow, who notched his 13th save of the season and flipped the Royals’ script in the third game of this series. The seven runs the Royals scored were finally enough to stave off the Astros with some gutsy performances from a pitching staff that has blown leads the past two nights. Starter Brad Keller allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings, but kept the Royals’ early lead intact.

“It was exactly what we needed,” manager Mike Matheny said. “Just real proud of the offense coming out, even though the last couple days had something going and not being able to put it away. To come back resilient, aggressive, you could tell they believe in themselves.”

The Royals were tasked with facing an Astros starter who has been one of the best in the American League this season and simply dominant especially in his past two starts. Cristian Javier entered Wednesday ranked second in the AL in opponent average (.175), third in strikeouts per nine (12.27) and fourth in WHIP (0.96). He threw seven scoreless innings against the Yankees at the end of June to begin the Astros’ combined no-hitter.

Five days later, on July 1, he struck out a career high 14 while allowing one hit in seven innings for the Astros.

On Wednesday, Whit Merrifield took the third pitch he saw from Javier into the Crawford Boxes for a leadoff home run. Benintendi followed with a walk. Two batters later, Hunter Dozier smoked a two-out, two-run home run to extend the Royals' lead to three.

“Just try to stay on top of his heater,” Benintendi said. “We know it has a lot of life to it. It plays up. We met before the game and had a meeting about it, just went over the game plan and approach. It worked out well.”

In the second inning, Emmanuel Rivera joined the home run bash with his sixth of the year. In the third, Benintendi walked again and scored on Dozier’s double.

“Against that team over there, at this ballpark, you have to keep adding on,” said Dozier, who had a homer, double and three RBIs.

With 20 runs scored in Houston so far this series, the Royals are the first team this season to score five runs or more in three consecutive games against Astros pitching. They’ve now hit multiple home runs in five of the first six games on this road trip.

Playing in hitter-friendly parks has helped with this offensive eruption; Merrifield’s home run on Wednesday, for example, went an estimated distance of 360 feet -- a home run in exactly one ballpark. But the Royals’ offense has been remarkably consistent -- they entered Wednesday ranked fourth in the league in walk rate (9%) and eighth in average (.244) since June 1.

And on Wednesday, those results translated to a win.