Tigers 6, Royals 1: Relentless offense returns for the homestand

The Tigers pounded out 12 hits and drew five walks to handle KC in the series opener.

The Detroit Tigers did not hit a home run in their 6-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night. Instead, it was the same relentless collection of pesky at-bats, singles, doubles, and walks that have made them one of the top offenses in the game to start the year. Reese Olson put together a very good outing, and the bullpen handled the rest as the Tigers run their record to 11-8 with a two game lead over Cleveland in the division.

As has been his trend, Olson got into a little early trouble in this one. The first two hitters he faced, Jonathan India and Bobby Witt Jr., reached on a single and a walk respectively. It looked like the Tigers would start in a deficit again. Instead, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez flew out, and Olson punched out Michael Massey swinging over a nasty changeup. Crisis averted.

The Tigers faced old friend Michael Lorenzen, and they promptly got their first base runner when Kerry Carpenter grounded a single through the right side of the infield. Noted #3 hitter, Zach McKinstry? was up next and he sliced a drive deep down the left field line, but Drew Waters ran it down. Lorenzen tried to stay away from Spencer Torkelson but fell behind 3-1. He then fired one right down the middle and Torkelson fouled it off, frustrated to not have mashed that pitch. Instead, Lorenzen missed down and walked him. Unfortunately, Riley Greene popped out to Witt and expressed his frustrations with his recent slump quite audibly on the broadcast.

Cavan Biggio grounded a single back up the middle with one out in the second inning. However, Olson had settled in nicely by this point. He got Waters to fly out to Ryan Kreidler in center and then really carved up Kyle Isbel, dropping a curveball on the outer edge for strike two and getting the whiff over a changeup to send us to the bottom of the second inning.

Dillon Dingler led off the inning with a single but the Tigers struggles continued at the plate. Colt Keith popped out and a ground out by Trey Sweeney moved Dingler to second. He’d take third on a wild pitch, but a fly ball into the right center field gap off the bat of Kreidler was caught to turn the Tigers away.

The Royals lineup turned over again to open the third. India gave Olson a pretty good battle, but he too fell victim to an evil changeup and swung wildly over the top as he fell to one knee. Witt grounded one to McKinstry at third, who got to show off some arm strength as he gunned down the Royals shortstop just in time. Olson punched out Pasquantino on another changeup and was through three in 51 pitches. Not his most efficient effort, but a very effective one anyway.

In the bottom half the Tigers got something going. Carpenter reached on an grounder that Massey at second had to dive for and lost on the transfer. McKinstry turned up his nose at Lorenzen’s attempts to bait him and drew a walk. That brought up the man of the hour, one Spencer Torkelson. Tork smoked a double down the left field line to drive in both runs. Riley Greene then lined a single into center field to plate Torkelson and it was suddenly 3-0 Tigers.

Flash to a Tigers’ dugout that was jokingly going wild for Greene after a few rough series. The Tigers’ star outfielder responded by low key asking to keep the ball as though it was his first major league hit or his 1000th. Cute.

Dingler struck out, and while Riley was perhaps fixed, Colt Keith is not yet. He remains late on the fastball and out front of the offspeed stuff, and he again popped out into foul territory down the left field line on a changeup. On to the fourth.

Perez, as he often does, made a bid for a homer to start the inning. Greene caught it comfortably with his back to the left field wall. Massey flared a little single over Sweeney into left field. Olson continued to work mainly with fourseam, sinker, and changeup, and his command was good. He had little feel for the slider early on, however. Maikel Garcia worked Olson into a full count and walked as Olson finally missed a key pitch away. That brought Biggio up with two on and one out and again Olson yanked a fastball, this time hitting Biggio and loading the bases.

Wanting to snuff this out rather than letting the Royals back into the game after just scoring three runs, Chris Fetter came out to offer some counsel. After a brief meeting at the mound, Waters stepped into the box and Olson promptly dropped a slider in for strike one. A changeup away with a ton of fade drew one whiff, and another nasty changeup straight down drew the whiff as Waters struck out on three straight pitches. One more to get. Isbel popped out on first pitch slider, and somewhere in the Tigers dugout, Mr. Fetter nodded his approval.

The Tigers went in order in the fourth, with Gleyber Torres making a two-out bid for a solo shot that fell just short of the right field wall to end the frame.

India flew out to start the fifth on a nice catch from Kreidler, but Witt smoked a double off the right field wall that nearly left the field. Olson fell behind Pasquantino 2-0 and had to work his way back into the count. He dropped a changeup in for a strike, and then one further down got a grounder to Colt Keith at first. So Witt moved to third and with two outs, Sal Perez stepped to the dish. This prompted another Fetter visit to make sure Olson and Dingler didn’t make a big mistake to the powerful Royals catcher. It worked, as Olson got a fly ball to center field to end the threat.

Olson had 10 whiffs, eight on the changeup, to this point. He had struck out five Royals, allowing two walks and four hits, but his pitch count was up to 87 so his day was likely over. He was very good, but he didn’t get those quick outs on the sinker to help him pitch deeper into the ballgame. Still, a nice step after a couple of mediocre outings to start the year.

Carpenter was up first in the bottom of the fifth, and he confused everyone by taking a time out before Lorenzen threw his first pitch of the inning. Clearly, Carpenter was in his head and he promptly collected his third hit of the game. This time, it was a double down the right field line, and the Tigers were in business.

McKinstry continued to show his newfound discipline by taking a couple of close two strike pitches to draw a walk. Now it was Lorenzen’s pitch count spiraling and his outing neared its end as Torkelson stepped into the box again. This time he grounded into a would-be double play, but after taking the throw from Massey at second, Witt lost the ball on the transfer.

So it was first and third with one out and Riley Greene at the plate. Rather than going to the bullpen for a lefty, Lorenzen stayed in there and surrendered a single hooked into right field to score Carpenter. Tork did a nice job going first to third on the play as well. A meeting at the mound did not produce a pitching change with the right-handed Dillon Dingler stepping to the plate. It worked out, as Lorenzen punched out Dingler, and Matt Quatraro came out to call in a lefty to face Colt Keith.

Sidearm lefty Evan Sisk took over from Lorenzen, and with runners in scoring position, AJ Hinch pulled Keith in favor of Andy Ibáñez against the southpaw. It worked out as he flew out to left to end the inning. 4-0 Tigers.

Tyelr Holton took over in the sixth. Massey greeted him with a swinging bunt to third. Maikel Garcia smoked a one-hopper to McKinstry and the Tigers’ third baseman dove, knocked it down, and again uncorked the cannon to cut down the speedy Garcia at first. Really nice play. Who is this man?

Holton wasn’t particularly sharp early on, and he missed with four straight to walk Hunter Renfroe, who pinch hit for Biggio. Drew Waters flew out to Kreidler in center field and that left it up to Kyle Isbel with runners on first and second and two outs. Holton carved him up on three pitches, the last a hellacious sweeper that drew a wild swing and a miss to keep the Royals scoreless.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Kreidler drew a walk. Gleyber Torres singled back up the middle, and with one out, the pair attempted a double steal. The throw went to second and Torres was safe despite a Royals challenge attempt. So Carpenter stepped to the dish with two in scoring position and enjoying a 3-for-3 day to this point. However, with Sisk releasing the ball from behind Carpenter’s head, he was a tough matchup for him and the Tigers’ slugger struck out. That left it up to Babe McKinstry but he was robbed by one of the few bad calls on the night as Paul Clemons rung him up on a pitch that was a few inches inside.

Beau Brieske was out of the pen next, and he got India to fly out yet again to start the seventh inning. The right-hander did a nice job with Witt, staying away from him early and then locking him up with a heater for strike three at the bottom of the zone. Pasquantino flew out to Greene, and it was a nice inning for Brieske.

Veteran right-hander Chris Stratton took over in the bottom half for the Royals. Riley Greene managed a little infield single, but Torkelson, Dingler, and Ibáñez all grounded out in the inning.

Brieske stayed out for the top of the eighth as the Tigers numerous failed chances to score started to loom a little larger. Brieske walked Perez to start the inning and then Massey and Garcia both singled to make it 4-1 Tigers. That was the end for Brieske as AJ Hinch popped out of the dugout and called for Tommy Kahnle.

The changeup artist did the job. He got Renfroe to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, and while Renfroe looked to have beaten the throw to first, he was called out. Quatraro had already burned his challenge and so he came out to beg the first base umpire for a crew chief review. This was denied as he took more than the allotted 15 seconds to ask, the double play stood, and Kahnle got Drew Waters to ground out weakly to end the inning.

That was the ballgame. Nice job by Kahnle to put out the fire and this is why the Tigers decided to add some veteran relief help this season.

Sweeney opened the bottom half of the eighth with a grounder in the hole and the speedy shortstop beat out the throw from Witt for a leadoff single. Kreidler then drew a walk from Stratton and the Tigers were in business. Torres took a huge hack and came up empty first pitch, but he ultimately drilled a single to left to load the bases as Kreidler had to hold up rather than trying to score with no outs.

Kerry Carpenter dug into the left-handed batter’s box and quickly got ahead 2-0. Stratton got a gift strike on a floating changeup inside, and then got away with a hanging curveball that Carpenter took a huge rip at but fouled off. Stratton missed away with a backdoor slider attempt to fill up the count, and he had nowhere to put Carpenter. Carp expected a strike and he didn’t get it as he hacked over a curveball down and in to strike out. That was a bit of a bummer, but McKinstry pulled a grounder to Massey and beat out the double play turn from Witt to score Sweeney from third. 5-0 Tigers. Spencer Torkelson swung through two fastballs down the middle, but Stratton and Perez foolishly tried to triple up on what was essentially a meatball and Tork smoked it back through the box to score Kreidler.

Riley Greene grounded out, but it was 6-0 Tigers and last call for the Royals. Yes, yes this is very good.

The Royals bench had grown increasingly whiny with home plate umpire Paul Clemons and in the ninth with two outs, Clemons finally started throwing Royals coaches out of the game. That was fun. Anyway, Kahnle had no trouble at all collecting his third save. He racked up three quick outs with Ibáñez making a nice play on a hot grounder to end it.

That’s an 11-8 start for your Tigers. The Yankees and Rangers are a half game ahead of them for the American League lead.

The task will be tougher tomorrow evening as the Royals start left-handed ace Cole Ragans against the Tigers’ rookie and top prospect, Jackson Jobe.