Royals Use 17 Hit Attack to Take Series from Tigers

Kansas City 7, Detroit 3 (box)

Things looked like they would be different this time around. After Tigers starter Rick Porcello worked around a couple of two-out hits in the first, Magglio Ordonez put the Tigers in the lead with a solo homer to left off Royals starter Kayle Davies.

That’s sort of when things fell apart for Porcello. In the second inning, he allowed two singles to the bottom part of the KC lineup, then watched them both score on a long double by David DeJesus. After the Tigers stranded a lead-off double in the bottom of the inning, Porcello gave up another run on three more hits in the third.

His pitch count was rising after two more hits in the fourth, but Porcello recovered to get a double play ball from Billy Butler and proceeded to retire the last seven batters he faced, getting through the sixth.

Detroit looked like they wouldn’t need a late-inning comeback this time, as they loaded the bases with none out and a run already home in the fifth. Unfortunately, all they could do was tie the score at three thanks to a ground ball double play and a fly out.

Ryan Perry then entered for the seventh, but he was anything but relief. Perry walked the lead-off man DeJesus, who was then sacrificed to second. A wild pitch moved him up to third, but the Tigers should have escaped with a scoreless inning.

Butler lifted a shallow fly ball to right and DeJesus tagged and came home. Ordonez’s throw was there in time, but Gerald Laird couldn’t hang on to it as he tried to apply the tag. Perry was obviously rattled and served up a long ball to the next batter, Jose Guillen, on an 0-2 fastball.

The Royals strung two more hits together in the inning and added another walk, but couldn’t score when Alberto Callaspo was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

For the second time in this series, John Parrish provided some decent relief work for the Royals, although he was shaky with his command. Parrish and Joakim Soria shutdown the Tigers to close out the game.

Cheers and Jeers after the jump. It’s not pretty.

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Cheers for

• Jose Guillen– Seriously, what’s gotten into this guy? Guillen had three more hits today including his second homer of the series and fourth in four games.
• Magglio Ordonez– Magglio’s first inning shot was his third of the year, a team high. For reference, Ordonez didn’t get his third homer of last year until late June.
• Royals Offense– Kansas City had six different players record multi-hit games in this one. Jason Kendall had four all by himself. This is ridiculous.
• Johnny Damon– Damon’s fifth inning double drove in a run, which was the 1000th RBI of his career, so that’s something I guess. Of course he’s played 15 years, so they were bound to add up. But it’s a nice round number so I figured I should mention it.

Jeers for

• Gerald Laird– Laird was especially unproductive today, in all aspects of the game. He twice failed to advance runners when he should have and dropped the throw from Ordonez that would have kept the game tied at three. Sometimes guys have bad starts to the year, but Laird is rapidly approaching ’88 Orioles territory. Expect to see a lot more Alex Avila in the lineup soon.
• Tigers Pitching– The Royals had 17 hits and six players had at least two a piece. It’s the freaking Royals, people. Isn’t the pitching staff supposed to be the Tigers strength? That’s 43 hits and 22 runs given up to Kansas Effing City in this series. They should have been swept.

What’s on tap?

A day off tomorrow, thank goodness, as the tigers travel to Seattle to begin a 10 game road trip. After the way the Tigers played, especially pitching-wise, over the past four games, they could use a break. Still a 4-2 home stand is nothing terrible, but dropping two of three to Kansas City, especially the way they were so thoroughly beaten, is depressing.