October 30: Josh Willingham, James Shields, Raúl Ibañez, Luke Hochevar, Jason Frasor, Scott Downs, and Norichika Aoki become free agents.

The Houston Astros defeated the New York Yankees 3–0 in the 2015 American League Wild Card Game on Tuesday, October 6, earning them the right to play the Royals in the ALDS.

6:37 p.m. CDT at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri One season after the Royals blazed through the 2014 ALDS and ALCS with sweeps, they fell to the Astros in their first postseason game of 2015, struggling to manufacture offense against Houston's Collin McHugh.

The only Kansas City hitter to produce runs was Kendrys Morales, who cracked a pair of solo shots off McHugh in the second and fourth innings.

Kansas City's own starter, Yordano Ventura, seemed dazed early, giving up a walk and two hits to the Astros before he recorded the game's first out.

Young put three zeroes on the board against Houston, but the Astros did strike once against him in the fifth, taking a 4–2 lead, as George Springer hit a solo home run to left field.

A loyal crowd in Kansas City tried to unnerve Houston closer Luke Gregerson in the ninth, especially after he hit Mike Moustakas with a pitch, but the final inning was otherwise uneventful, and the Astros sealed their 5–2 Game 1 victory over the Royals with relative ease.

They again fell behind early as starter Johnny Cueto's struggles continued, Colby Rasmus doubling to bring in George Springer to give the Astros a 1–0 lead.

They would pad it in the second with two more runs off of Cueto, courtesy of a Springer line drive that brought home Chris Carter and Jason Castro, who had previously reached on a single and walk, respectively.

The Royals' offense rolled out of bed in the bottom of the second, with Salvador Pérez cracking a solo shot off of Houston's Scott Kazmir.

The Astros negated the effect of the Kansas City run in the top of the third as Rasmus homered for his third consecutive postseason game.

Kansas City remained resilient, however, with Alex Ríos doubling, Alcides Escobar singling on an overturned video-review call, and Ben Zobrist hitting a sacrifice ground out to bring Rios home.

However, in their second challenge victory of the night, a Davis pickoff throw in which Gomez was originally ruled to be safe was overturned, retiring him for the second out of the inning.

3:07 p.m. CDT at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas The Kansas City Royals' Edinson Vólquez pitched valiantly, only allowing three of four runs from Houston's power-hitting lineup, but the Astros surged ahead 2–1 in the series anyway on the back of another strong pitching performance from their own starter, Dallas Keuchel, who struck out seven Royal batters and surrendered only a solo home run, a fourth inning blast off the bat of Lorenzo Cain.

Houston's own offense struck in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Astros posting a two-run frame to negate the Cain blast.

Volquez, after striking out Carlos Gómez, walked Luis Valbuena, who was then moved over to third base by virtue of a Chris Carter double.

The Royals' string of clutch hits in the top of the eighth against a frazzled Houston bullpen restored life to a team that had been pushed to the brink of elimination by Astro starter Lance McCullers.

Houston's Will Harris was charged with four earned runs and Tony Sipp with one during Kansas City's eighth inning comeback.

Cliff Pennington of the Blue Jays was brought in during the 9th inning as Toronto's bullpen became increasingly thin after the Royals scoring refused to cease after numerous pitching changes.

[14] Eric Hosmer reduced the lead to 3–2 with a sacrifice fly, and set a new Royals' postseason run batted in (RBI) record in the process.

[15][16] A single by Mike Moustakas tied the game at three, but in the top of the eighth, Wilmer Flores reached on an fielding error by Hosmer, allowing Juan Lagares to score the go-ahead run and give the Mets a 4–3 lead.

Alex Gordon tied the game for the Royals with a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, as Jeurys Familia blew his first save in six opportunities this postseason.

In the fifth inning, the Royals scored four runs on RBI singles by Alcides Escobar, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Moustakas.

The Royals made a few uncharacteristic mistakes in this game, the first coming in the fourth inning when pitcher Yordano Ventura forgot to cover the base on a ground ball to the first baseman, and the second in the sixth inning when Royals pitcher Franklin Morales triple-clutched Granderson's ground ball, allowing all runners to be safe, which led to a 2-run single by David Wright.

[37] Tony Bennett performed America the Beautiful, and the first pitch was thrown by Cleon Jones, Mookie Wilson, and Darryl Strawberry.

After Paulo Orlando, who had substituted into the game earlier, reached base on an error by Daniel Murphy, Alcides Escobar hit a double to score Colón.

Ben Zobrist was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Cain drove home three more runs with a double off Bartolo Colón.