KC Royals Waste Quality Start By Johnny Cueto in 2-1 Loss

The KC Royals bats went cold Wednesday night, as Matt Boyd and the Tigers down the first-place Royals 2-1 in the second game of a three-game set.

Newly acquired Royals starter Johnny Cueto got off to a fast start, retiring his first six Tigers before Tyler Collins lead off the 3rd inning with a double.

After a sacrifice bunt and a line out gave Cueto an opportunity to escape from trouble, Anthony Gose tripled with two outs to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Cueto stranded Gose at third to minimize the damage and the Royals didn’t wait long to get a run back.

With two outs in the top of the 4th, Eric Hosmer singled, and was followed by a rare Kendrys Morales triple to knot the game up at 1-1.

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Keeping with the trend, the Tigers struck right back in the bottom half of the 4th as Ian Kinsler tripled to lead off the inning and was driven in on a Victor Martinez ground out.

Cueto, making his second start as a Royal, threw well despite the lack of run support, giving Kansas City seven quality innings.

He finished the night at 1 pitches in which he gave up five hits while striking out two Tigers and walking two more.

His counterpart Matt Boyd stifled the Royals in his third career start, his first as a Tiger.

Boyd gave up just one run on seven hits while giving up one run and striking out two Royals in the process

The Royals threatened in the 9th after Blaine Hardy retired Kansas City’s first two hitters before being replaced by right-hander Alex Wilson.

Wilson then gave up a two-out single to Salvador Perez, who was removed from the game in favor of Jarrod Dyson.

Dyson proceeded to steal second before Alex Rios flew out to Collins to end the game.

The Tigers improved to 52-55, while the Royals fell to 63-43.

Next: Kansas City Royals vs. Detroit Tigers, 12:08 PM CT, Comerica Park; RHP Yordano Ventura (6-7, 4.98 ERA) vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez (10-9, 4.77 ERA)

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