Royals were scoring everywhere (c) Associated Press

Trailing 3-1 in the fourth, Houston chased starter Kyle Davies with five consecutive hits. After Michael Bourn snuck a two-out double down the left field line to drive in a pair, the Astros emerged with a 6-3 lead.

But Felipe Paulino couldn't get the last out of the fifth. After a single and a walk with two away, Jose Guillen flicked a foul off catcher Humberto Quintero's mask on a 1-2 offering. Home plate umpire Mark Everitt ruled catcher's interference on Quintero and awarded Guillen first to load the bases. From there, the floodgates opened and Manager Brad Mills didn't get Paulino until the Royals led, 9-6. Tim Byrdak allowed a tenth run to cross before the inning ended.

From there, it was just a matter of piling on as the Royals amassed 20 hits and were aided by four walks, three Houston errors, two wild pitches, a batter's interference against Jeff Keppinger, a catcher's interference, a partridge and a pear tree.

At least the bats woke up a bit. Three Astros had multi-hit games, including Jason Michaels, who was the DH (why not left field, Brad?) and homered in a so-what rally in the eighth. Every starter but Tommy Manzella had at least one hit.

For Paulino, who had strung together several great starts to get his ERA down below four, it was a tough night where he wound up charged with 10 runs (eight earned) in 4-2/3rds innings. The Royals didn't hit him hard until the end but they shredded him with bleeders and bloops and infield singles before Yuniesky Betancourt's three-run double ended his night.

Roy Oswalt (4-8) tries to snap Houston's four-game losing streak on Wednesday when he faces lefty Bruce Chen (3-0) in a 7:10 Central start. Chen was considered washed up when he was released by the Astros back in 2003 but he has wandered through Boston, Baltimore, Texas and Kansas City since then, proving once again that a lefthander's career is baseball is never over until he announces his retirement.