HOUSTON -- Brady Singer pitched six strong innings, and Kyle Isbel gave him the run support with a bases-clearing double, but one disastrous inning hurt the Royals in more ways than one Thursday night.

Clinging to a one-run lead to start the eighth, two key Royals were injured on one play and things spiraled downhill from there in a 6-3 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

With runners on first and second and one out, Lucas Erceg tried to field Yainer Diaz¡¯s comebacker barehanded, but it bounced off his pitching hand. Erceg¡¯s throw to first was up the line, and Diaz appeared to run into Vinnie Pasquantino¡¯s outstretched arm.

Pasquantino, who is hitting .262 with 19 home runs and 97 RBIs, threw off his glove and walked around in obvious pain before he exited. The team announced on Friday morning that he had suffered a broken right thumb. Further tests are scheduled today, but he will miss six to eight weeks.

The trainer examined Erceg¡¯s hand before the right-hander also exited.

¡°I didn¡¯t say anything to him,¡± Royals manager Matt Quatraro said of his visit with Erceg. ¡°He was in pain when he touched his fingers, so really, there wasn¡¯t a need for a conversation because I knew he wasn¡¯t going to be able to throw another pitch.¡±

Erceg has been a solid leverage pitcher for the Royals since being acquired at the Trade Deadline. He had a streak of 12 1/3 scoreless innings over 11 appearances with Kansas City snapped on Wednesday against the Guardians.

On the play, a run scored, and John Schreiber entered with runners on second and third. The Royals intentionally walked Ben Gamel, and Schreiber induced a groundout by Jeremy Pe?a to third, with Maikel Garcia able to get the out at the plate.

¡°We certainly trust Johnny,¡± Quatraro said. ¡°He gets the ground ball, but it¡¯s hit too slowly to get the double play. We got another right-hander there. We¡¯ll take that match-up there every time.¡±

With two outs, Zach Dezenzo worked a walk to bring in the go-ahead run, and Mauricio Dub¨®n knocked a two-run single through the left side to pad the Astros¡¯ lead.

¡°I came into a tough situation and was trying to execute my pitches,¡± Schreiber said. ¡°I did a good job on Pe?a trying to get a ground ball. I tried to execute it against Dezenzo, and I didn¡¯t execute. Then, just a ground ball through the hole. I tried to make pitches. That¡¯s all you can do.¡±

The eighth overshadowed a stellar performance from Singer, who yielded two runs on five hits with six strikeouts.

¡°He threw the ball extremely well,¡± Quatraro said. ¡°It looked like his command was really sharp. He got a lot of strikes taken, swing and miss on his slider. He looked really sharp all the way through. He kept us in the ballgame really nicely.¡±

Singer retired 12 straight after a Yordan Alvarez single with one out in the first.

¡°Just attacked with all pitches,¡± Singer said. ¡°I felt like the sinker was working well. The slider had good depth to it. The four-seam [fastball] up, I felt I was able to land that quite a bit.¡±

Singer rebounded nicely after allowing at least four runs in three of his last four starts. In his last start Saturday against the Phillies, the right-hander was tagged for five runs in five-plus innings.

Singer relied heavily on a sinker-slider mix. Out of his 101 pitches thrown, he threw 45 sliders and 43 sinkers.

¡°I felt good,¡± Singer said. ¡°I felt like the sinker had a lot of movement. I was throwing it my glove side a lot more. The slider was the pitch tonight that worked well.¡±

The Royals didn¡¯t have many scoring opportunities against Houston starter Hunter Brown, but Isbel gave the Royals a 3-2 lead in the seventh with a three-run double into the left-field corner off Bryan Abreu.

¡°I was trying to get any momentum going,¡± Isbel said. ¡°Brown was really good on his side, he mixed it up really well, and I was just trying to capitalize when the other guy came in.¡±