Bobby Witt Jr., Nelson Velazquez and Michael Massey homered, Angel Zerpa gave up one run over four innings and the Kansas City Royals beat the Houston Astros 4-2 on Friday night.

The Kansas City Royals are busy patching up a roster decimated by players barred from traveling to Toronto because of their COVID-19 vaccination status while trying to heal their damaged image among fans.

Gerrit Cole’s strikeouts and spin rate dropped as he pitched for the first time since Major League Baseball’s crackdown on sticky substances, and the Kansas City Royals rallied off Jonathan Loiasiga for four runs in the eighth inning to beat the New York Yankees 6-5.