The Houston Astros carried their momentum from their Wild Card win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday into Kansas City on Thursday against the Royals to open up the ALDS with a victory.

They battled the raucous crowd at Kauffman Stadium along with a 48 minute rain delay, but in the end pulled out a hard fought victory.

The rain delay forced Royals starter Yordano Ventura from the game after just two innings of work. Those two innings weren't Ventura's best as he gave up three runs on four hits while striking out two and walking one. If the Royals plan on advancing to the ALCS, these type of outings will not get them where they want to go.

Long reliever Chris Young got most of the workload for Kansas City, as he went four innings giving up one run on three hits while striking out seven and walking two on 70 pitches. The Royals needed good innings out of Young in an unexpected role and he turned in a solid outing to keep them in the ballgame.

As for the Astros, they wasted no time getting the bats going.

In the first inning, Houston loaded the bases for Colby Rasmus when he forced in a run on a ground out to second base. That was followed by another ground out which scored George Springer and that had the Astros up 2-0 early on.

Then in the second inning, the Astros tacked on another run when hit machine Jose Altuve ripped a two-out single to right field to score Jake Marisnick, extending their lead over Kansas City to 3-0.

The Royals, however, weren't going away without a fight and Kendrys Morales had something to say about that. He came up clutch with two solo home runs - one in the second and one in the fourth - and that brought the Royals back to within a run at 3-2.

Those two swings of the bat was all of the damage the Royals could do against Astros starter Collin McHugh. McHugh went six innings giving up two runs on four hits while striking out one as well as walking one. This was a solid outing from a guy who has had his fair share of troubles as of late.

Houston wanted more however, and more is what they got.

The Astros extended their lead in the top of the fifth when George Springer clubbed a solo home run to left field to give the Astros a 4-2 advantage. Then in the eighth, Colby Rasmus wanted in on the fun and he also hit a solo shot to right off of Royals reliever Ryan Madson and that had the Astros rolling up 5-2.

The Royals threatened in the eighth as they had runners on first and second and two outs with Eric Hosmer at the plate, but he couldn't get the job done.

Then in the ninth, Houston closer Luke Gregerson came on to shut things down and had an easy ninth inning to preserve the win.

The Royals struggled to get things going as they tallied just six hits on the night against Houston pitching. For the Astros, Altuve had the best night at the plate going 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored while Houston pounded out 11 total hits.

Game two of this best-of-five series is Friday as Scott Kazmir of the Astros will take on Johnny Cueto of the Royals who are looking to even up the series before it shifts to Houston. Game two begins at 3:30 EST on FS1.

WP: Collin McHugh

LP: Yordano Ventura

SV: Luke Gregerson