A bit wilder sort of game broke out on Sunday, but the result was the same. The Royals teed off on the Tigers bullpen, including Andrew Sears in his major league debut, all game long. The offense fought back repeatedly, but just couldn’t keep pace as the Royals swept them out of Kauffman Stadium with an 11-7 victory on Sunday.
Gleyber Torres was in the leadoff spot, and he opened the game with a solid single. Hao-Yu Lee, in against lefty Daniel Lynch IV, flew out. Kevin McGonigle nearly got his head knocked off by a 1-2 Lynch fourseamer, and then smashed a drive to the wall in right center field. Torres, not the fleetest of foot, scored all the way from first, and the Tigers had a 1-0 lead. Eduardo Valencia flew out sharply to right field, advancing McGonigle to third with two outs, but Lynch got ahead of Torkelson and then blew him away with a high fastball.
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Jacob Waguespack took the mound as an opener for lefty Andrew Sears, who was promoted to Detroit prior to the game, while James Outman was DFA’d. Eduardo Valencia was behind the plate, while Dillon Dingler got a full day off. Corey Julks was the DH, with Javy Báez in left field to stack right-handers up against Lynch. Nick Loftin and Bobby Witt Jr. both grounded out to start the inning. Waguespack jammed Vinnie Pasquantino, and he blooped a little flare that Torres caught running out into right field to end the inning.
Corey Julks led off the second by flicking a weak liner into center field that froze Kyle Isbel and dropped in for a single. Ben Malgeri flew out to left. Max Clark fell behind, then worked into a full count and lined a sharp single into right field. Unfortunately, Javy Báez is doing little but grounding out to shortstop lately, and he pulled one right into a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame.
Waguespack was still in to start the bottom of the second. Sal Perez dumped a single in front of a diving Malgeri to start things off. Isaac Collins blew the Royals first challenge of the game on an edge strike. A cutter that backed up away whiffed Collins as Ty Madden started warming in the Tigers’ bullpen. With John Rave at the plate, Perez caught everyone napping and stole second while Waguespack, understandably, paid him no attention, and Valencia seemingly couldn’t quite get a grip and elected not to throw. The right-hander walked the weak-hitting Rave, and that was the end of his outing. Madden rather than Sears took over.
Madden immediately dug the hole deeper by hitting Tyler Tolbert, and so the weak hitting Luke Maile stepped in. Madden blew him away with 96 mph for the second out. Kyle Isbel then flicked a little slicing blooper into left and Báez hesitated a bit and the ball dropped in for a two-run single. A 1-0 fastball to Nick Loftin was thrown middle in right into a right-handed hitter’s sweet spot, and got smoked over the wall in left for a three-run shot. 5-1 Royals.
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Madden got ahead of Witt 1-2, and then hung a splitter that was ripped to left for a single. Witt stole second, and then took third on a bounced breaking ball that got away from Valencia. Madden couldn’t locate much and walked Pasquantino as Tigers fans perhaps decided to move on and enjoy their Sunday. Perez checked his swing with two strikes, but Witt apparently thought he struck out and started coming down the line toward home plate. The Tigers ran him down to end the inning. Couldn’t say exactly what was going on in Witt’s mind on that one, but it’s unlikely he was feeling bad for the opposition.
Torres started the third by flying out to the warning track in right. Lee smoked one deep to right center field as well, but Isbel caught it on the warning track as well. McGonigle ripped one deep to center and that was an out too. Hitting it too hard, but not quite hard or high enough. Madden pulled it together in the bottom half, striking out Perez and Collins in a 1-2-3 frame as Sears started warming.
The Tigers stayed aggressive against Lynch in the fourth, swinging early in counts and they were generally hitting the ball hard so it was hard to argue with, but they went 1-2-3 in a six-pitch inning.
Andrew Sears took the mound in the bottom half to make his major league debut. The southpaw feels like a future swingman, but we were very curious to see how his sinker-slider combination would play in the big leagues, and whether he could keep refining his changeup into more of a weapon. Sears worked from the third base side of the rubber against the right-handed hitting Tolbert, and popped him up for the first out of his big league career. Sears popped up Maile as well, and we saw a fair amount of this in the minor leagues. Sears funky rhythm, crossfire delivery, extension and low arm slot all help to keep hitters off balance and often late. He stayed on the third base side of the rubber against the left-handed hitting Isbel, and got him to ground out to McGonigle to end a snappy first inning in the big leagues. Congrats to him.
Lynch nipped the corner down and away from Malgeri for a strikeout to start the fifth. Max Clark waited Lynch out and drew a one-out walk, and that was the end of the day for Lynch, who hasn’t been stretched out fully to start yet. Right-hander Mason Black took over against Báez, and the veteran finally took a different approach and lined a double into the right field corner. The Tigers held Clark at third, but he scored on a Torres ground out to shortstop. 5-2 Royals. Báez took third right in Witt’s face on the play, and Lee lined an RBI single to make it a 5-3 game.
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McGonigle then stepped in, got a first pitch curveball down and launched it out to right field for his 14th homer of the season. Tie ballgame. Great to see some fight after the way the last 10 days have gone. That shot gave McGonigle 137 hits in his rookie season, passing Hank Greenberg’s rookie mark. Valencia flew out, but the Tigers had tied it up, and so now young Mr. Sears got to work in a little more of a pressure scenario.
Sears walked Loftin to start the inning, but he carved up Witt with backfoot sliders for his first major league strikeout. Bobby Witt Jr. is a pretty good first one. However, a slider left on the inner edge to Pasquantino got smoked off the top of the wall in right center for a double to score Loftin. 6-5 Royals. Sears was leaving the ball up and a first pitch changeup to Perez was literally center cut and got smashed into the left field corner for another RBI double. Collins grounded out, but Sears then absolutely hung a 2-2 slider to John Rave and that got crushed to left for a two-run shot. 9-5 Royals. Tolbert flew out, but the damage was done.
Black walked Torkelson to start the sixth. Brett Callahan pinch hit for Julks, and Quatraro countered with lefty Connor Thomas. He nicked Callahan with a pitch, and then Malgeri pulled a grounder to third that Loftin booted. Everyone was safe, the bases were loaded with no outs, and Clark stepped to the dish. He drilled a sharp one-hopper to Witt, who instead of trying to turn the double play, threw to third to get Callahan as the run scored. Odd decision. 9-6 Royals, and Quatraro quickly went back to the pen. John Schreiber entered, and so AJ Hinch countered with Zach McKinstry hitting for Báez, but he whiffed on a cutter away.
Malgeri and Clark pulled off a double steal as Schreiber fell behind Torres 2-0. Schreiber worked back into a full count and Torres grounded out to Loftin to end the inning still down three.
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Sears popped up Maile and then got Loftin to fly out in the bottom half. Loftin paddled a high 2-2 sinker back up the middle for a two-out single, but after a battle, Sears climbed the ladder with a heater to dust Witt for the second time. Nice job bouncing back.
Jose Cuas was on in the seventh for the Royals, and Lee greeted him with a drive up the left center field gap for a double. Hao-Yu Lee just continues to adjust to pitchers and hit balls hard. Cuas walked McGonigle, and so it was first and second with no outs. Things got weird again, as Eduardo Valencia dropped a bunt down the third base line.
The roller looked certain to go foul, and certainly Loftin was not expecting that from the big man. He waited to see if it would roll foul, but instead it stayed true and clipped third base. Everyone was safe, the bases were loaded, and Colt Keith pinch-hit for Torkelson. Not sure how many times we’ve seen Hinch pinch-hit for Tork. Keith fell behind, but got a good pitch to hit and smoked a drive, but it was right to Collins in left and Lee couldn’t tag and score. Callahan took some huge rips and got behind, swinging through a cutter to strike out. Minor league statesman Ben Malgeri was more patient and he calmly took some close pitches until Cuas walked him to push across a run. 9-7 Royals. Clark was perhaps too patient, as Cuas fired a first pitch fastball right down the pipe for strike one. He eventually popped out in foul territory and the Tigers stranded the bases loaded.
Sears got Pasquantino on a fly out to start the bottom half. He punched out Perez on a slider away. Collins lined a single to right field, but McKinstry was there and cut him down trying to stretch it into a double to end the inning.
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Nate Pearson, once upon a time a premium pitching prospect with triple-digit heat for the Blue Jays, took over in the eighth. Now 30 years old, he is no longer that guy and has struggled with control and injuries for years now.
McKinstry greeted him with a solid single, turning the lineup over. Torres flew out down the right field line for the first out. Hao-Yu Lee hit it harder, but Rave ran it down near the warning track in right. A 1-1 pitch to McGonigle was called a strike but was just low, and the Tigers’ star rookie challenged it correctly. Pearson fired a fastball for a strike to get to 2-2, and a 99 mph fastball away off the plate drew a rare chase as McGonigle struck out.
Sears was at 70 pitches to start the bottom of the eighth. Rave singled up the middle to start things off, and that was the end of Sears’ debut. 4.0 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, BB, 3 K. He made more mistakes than usual and found out quickly that major league hitters punish them consistently. Still, Sears has talent and we’ll look for him to settle in as he works with the major league coaching staff more.
Kyle Finnegan entered trying to keep the game within reach. He struck out Tolbert with a splitter down, but Rave stole second pretty comfortably on the play. Carter Jensen entered to pinch-hit for Maile, but flew out on a first pitch heater. Rave stole third without a throw as Kyle Isbel hit, as the center field smoked a hanging splitter right through Gleyber Torres, who could only deflect it slightly. And so, it was 10-7 Royals.
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Isbel stole second, because they know Valencia’s pop-times and arm are mediocre, and frankly Finnegan is abysmal at holding runners. I still don’t really grasp why the Tigers DFA’d Jake Rogers, but it’s whatever at this point. This isn’t going to work next year though. In a 2-1 count, Valencia challenged a slider in that wasn’t terribly close, and the Tigers were out of challenges. The count went to 3-2, Finnegan fired a fastball up and in and Loftin lined a single to left. Isbel scored to make it 11-7.
After a mound visit from Chris Fetter, Finnegan walked Witt. Finally, Pasquantino grounded out to Keith at first to mercifully end the inning, but the Royals had largely put this one out of reach.
Steven Cruz took over to close this out. Valencia struck out, Keith again smashed a baseball but Pasquantino speared it at first. Brett Callahan hung in there and drew a walk to get Malgeri to the dish. He put up a fight, but took a called third—after a challenge—to strike out.
That’s a 1-8 road trip. After playing great ball and battling back into the picture from June into August, the Tigers look like they’re out of gas and rapidly falling out of the hunt for the last wild card spot. They will welcome in the high flying Tampa Bay Rays to Comerica Park at 6:40 p.m. ET on Monday to start a three-game set, and then they’ll have the Dodgers in town next weekend.
