After the heart-wrenching loss of game four giving up five runs in the eighth inning to have their four run lead slowly dissolve from the scoreboard, the Houston Astros arrived in Kauffman Stadium foraging for a bounce-back victory to advance to the cherished American League Championship Series.

With the Astros and Royals both starting acclaimed pitchers, the million plus viewers looked to experience an entertaining and compelling pitching duel that would decide whose punching in a ticket to the ALCS.

As the Royals approached the perfectly maintained field, the Kansas City crowd quickly arose from their seats chanting, screaming, and yelling for their hometown team, practically praying for an ALCS berth.

Both teams looked to start off the crucial game five with a bang, but failed to do so as  they couldn’t scratch a run across the scoreboard.The top of the second inning commenced, and  pitcher Johnny Cueto retired the first two batters, and looked to do the same against the rugged, heavy built batter Evan Gattis. Gattis jumped on the second pitch of the at bat to reach first on an infield single, which led to Luis Valbuena crushing a two-run bomb to right field placing the Astros up early in the most important game of the season. The Royals responded in their half of the inning putting a run across the board to reduce the Astros lead to 2-1.

After a quiet fifth inning for the Astros bats, their defense took the field intending for an expeditious three outs, but the Royals had different plans involving Alex Rios hitting a two-run double scoring Salvador Perez and Alex Gordon.Then Ben Zobrist joined the action with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Rios. With the Royals scoring three runs and the Astros having to remove starting pitcher Collin McHugh, it seemed all the momentum had shifted to the KC Royals who seized a three-run lead heading into the sixth inning.

With the score 4-1, the Astros looked to reclaim the lead but failed to do so as their offense ended the game going 0-21 and did not acquire a single hit following the second inning. The Royals however, looked to add insurance runs to their lead as Kendrys Morales smacked a three-run homer scoring Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar increasing their lead to 7-2 in the 8th inning and essentially finalizing their ALCS berth. Closer Wade Davis appeared in the 9th for the KC Royals and retired the last three batters of the game to secure the Royals second ALCS appearance in two years, and end the Astros 2015 season.