Well, you felt good about a sweep going in. All you had to do was best the Tigers bullpen, and after overcoming a 3-0 deficit to tie it after 4 innings, the Royals looked primed to sweep their divisional foe.
However, Gage Workman, who literally got recalled this afternoon from AAA hit his first career MLB homer off Nick Mears, it was worth two runs, and the Royals dropped the series finale 6-3.
It was another lackluster start for Noah Cameron. He went just 4 innings allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, walking 3 and striking out 4 batters. It took him 95 pitches to get just 12 outs.
John Schreiber threw a scoreless 5th. It’s still scary every time he takes the hill, but he has looked better after a very tough beginning of the season. Mears gave up a leadoff single ahead of the two-run homer.
Daniel Lynch IV finally looked human, struggling in his 2/3 of an inning. He allowed a run on two hits and a walk. Alex Lange pitched a scoreless inning, and two thirds and Steven Cruz threw a scoreless 9th inning for the second consecutive night.
Offensively, it looked like the April Royals. They were 3-11 with runners in scoring position and squandered an opportunity right out of the gate. After back-to-back singles in the bottom of the first, Vinnie Pasquantino weakly flew out to left, Isaac Collins fouled out to third and Carter Jensen fouled out to the catcher. Scoring right of the gate would’ve been the gut punch to the Tigers bullpen game plan and put a lot of pressure on the visitors, but the missed opportunity swung the momentum.
The Royals got a pair of runs back in the third after Garcia doubled and Witt singled. Vinnie came through this time with an RBI single and Jensen just missed a three-run homer with a sac fly to deep right field.
Garcia bailed out Elias Diaz and Kyle Isbel in the bottom of the 4th after Jac Caglianone led off the inning with a double, Garcia smacked a 2-out single to center to tie it at 3. Garcia was 3-3 after the first four innings of the game.
The Royals threatened in the 7th and 8th but hit into double plays that ended the threat. They went down 1-2-3 in the 9th.
The Royals finish the homestand 4-3. On the season, they are 3-4 against Cleveland, who they don’t play again until August and 2-4 against Detroit, who they don’t play again until July. A couple of key head-to-head tiebreakers as the season progresses.
The Royals are 19-22 on the season, just like the Tigers, and a game and a half back of the 21-21 Guardians for the division. The Royals are off tomorrow after 13 straight days of baseball. They have a three-game series against the White Sox in Chicago, and then next weekend are in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals. It’s a big trip and week for the Royals who are still trying to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves.
First pitch on Tuesday is at 6:40 p.m. CT, the game can be watched on Royals.TV. Stephen Kolek is expected to start.
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