KC Royals Take Series From Detroit After Rain Delay

1. 63. 2. 7. Final

Tonight we were treated to something of a pitching duel. Chris Young and Shane Greene each only gave up one run. Chris Young went six innings giving up only three hits with three strikeouts while Green went eight innings allowing four hits with three strikeouts.

The KC Royals scored in the top of the second when Kendrys Morales led off with a double and was brought home on an opposite-field double from Alex Gordon.

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The Tigers’ run in the bottom of the third was helped by a foolhardy mistake on the part of Omar Infante. When Anthony Gose pushed a bunt towards second, Infante tried to get cute and throw it to Hosmer behind his back after picking up the ball bare-handed. The result was a flip approximately ten feet over Hosmer’s head which allowed Gose to move to second on the error. Ian Kinsler then singled past Escobar to tie the score.

The game went through the next five innings without a run scored although the Royals almost had a chance in the top of the eighth when Jarrod Dyson hit a ball to right-field that went past J.D. Martinez for a triple. It rolled long enough that it looked like he might have had an outside chance at scoring if the relay had been poor but in a eerily similar decision to one that was made back in October, Dyson was held at third. I think it was the right call. It looked like he would have been out by quite a bit if the throw was good, but you never know. (As many people are apt to tell you)

There had been rain here and there throughout the game and it really started coming down in the later innings. After Luke Hochevar warmed up in preparation for the bottom of the ninth, the umpires called for the tarps rendering him useless without even throwing a pitch. It was an interesting way to run a reliever. After a rain delay that ran well over an hour, Jason Frasor came on to pitch the bottom of the ninth. He loaded the bases but was able to work his way out of it somehow via some fly balls that failed to advance runners.

In the top of the tenth, Alex Gordon reached when an inside pitch appeared to graze his jersey. Replay made it seem that he may not have actually been hit but it was pretty close regardless and wasn’t reviewed. Gordon was then able to move to second on a pitch that got away from James McCann and then advanced to third on a Salvador Perez grounder to second. Omar Infante was able to bring Gordon home with a sacrifice fly to center field to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Royals.

Greg Holland made things interesting in the bottom of the tenth by loading the bases before getting a 5-2-3 double play that was nuts. He then loaded the bases up again before striking out Yoenis Cespedes.

So the Royals got out of Detroit with an after-hours win to take a 1.5 game lead in the division. They head to Texas this evening…..or morning if you want to get technical.

(If you want a case of the feel-goods, you can check out this cool story that ESPN did on Lorenzo Cain’s mom.)

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