Detroit completes the sweep
The Royals offense was hot coming into this series against the Tigers. They had won six of their last eight games. Then the offense came to a screeching halt, finalizing the screech this afternoon with a 10-0 loss to Detroit. Not that a little more offense would have mattered in this one.
The loss secured the sweep to Detroit, just their 4th sweep of the season. It is their 2nd in a row though, as they carry a six-game winning streak into their series against Minnesota. Meanwhile, the series again revealed a trend that has been far too common for the Royals of scoring lots of runs at home and very few runs on the road.
The Tigers got on the board first thanks to a Willi Castro solo shot in the 2nd, but both offenses remained mostly quiet through the first half of the game. Royals starter Jonathan Heasley started strong, limiting Detroit to just three base runners through four innings, including the lone run scoring homer.
Then Detroit broke the game open in the 5th, adding four more runs on a walk, a timely error from Vinnie Pasquantino, an RBI double, and ultimately a two-run homer from Javier Baez to go up 5-0. Kansas City needed Taylor Clarke to get the final out of the inning, giving Heasley a final line of five runs, four of them earned, in 4.2 innings of work.
The Tigers added five more runs in the 6th and 7th. As the feeble Detroit offense continued pouring on runs, Kansas City’s offense struggled for the 3rd consecutive game after a strong stretch of run scoring. Entering this series, the Royals had scored at least four runs in six of their last seven games, including an 11-run inning on Sunday to beat Seattle.
And it wasn’t for lack of trying. The Royals left 19 more runners on base after stranding 21 runners across the first two games of the series. They finally got on the board in 8th, adding two runs on a Ryan O’Hearn RBI double. Nate Eaton doubled in another run to make it a 10-3 game.
They went quietly in the 9th to end the game.
Up Next: Royals at Guardians, Friday, September 30, 6:10 PM CDT, Progressive Field. RHP Brady Singer (10-4, 2.99 ERA) v. RHP Zach Plesac (3-11, 4.39 ERA).
