Kansas City, Mo. — The Tigers don’t win this game two years ago. They maybe don’t win it at this stage of last season.
But on Friday, they once again walked the high-wire, putting themselves in peril seemingly every inning. And yet, when Will Vest logged the final out in the bottom of the ninth, they celebrated their fifth straight win, beating Central Division foes the Kansas City Royals, 7-5, at Kauffman Stadium.
“We expect to win,” said Spencer Torkelson, whose team-leading 14th home run and RBI single were vital to the win. “A couple of years ago, it’s like, ‘How are we going to lose this game.’ And now it’s, ‘How are we going to win it.’ There are so many opportunities, so many guys who can win this game for us.”
That Torkelson came up clutch should by now not be a surprise. He came into the game slashing .323/.400/580 with runners in scoring position.
He delivered a clutch two-out RBI in the fifth, winning an eight-pitch battle by hooking a single down the left field line. That run gave the Tigers a two-run lead.
His homer in the eighth ignited a two-run inning. Dillon Dingler, who hit a two-run homer in the second inning, singled in Wenceel Perez to create a three-run cushion.
“I’m just locked into getting my pitch,” Torkelson said. “Just looking for something out over and in trying to get to my pitch and cover that, I just see everything more clearly. And then just don’t try to do too much once I get it.”
His homer spoiled the big-league debut of Royals’ right-hander Andrew Hoffman. And it was an illustration of the approach he talked about. He certainly wasn’t looking for a changeup on 3-2, but he got it and he launched it 436 feet into the fountain in left-center.
He didn’t feel too bad about spoiling Hoffman’s debut.
“I didn’t have the best debut either,” he said, laughing. “I didn’t want to be his first strikeout. You know, it was just choke and poke and get the barrel to it. Felt like my two-strike approach has been lacking a little bit. I just wanted to shorten up and get to the fastball and he hung the changeup.”
The three-run cushion was welcomed after all the stress of the previous innings.
“I do like the way we stayed in it and kept chipping away offensively,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We made just enough plays on defense and our pitchers hung in there. They had guys on base all night.”
The Royals had 10 hits and stranded 10 runners in the first seven innings. They had runners on base in each of those innings and stranded the tying runs in scoring position in the third and fourth.
Talk about walking the high wire.
Tommy Kahnle pitched a clean eighth, the only one of the game for the Tigers. Vest got the first two outs in the ninth and then gave up a pair of two-strike singles, the second was an RBI knock by Drew Waters, who had three RBI.
But it ended there.
It was only a month ago that Casey Mize stymied the Royals over seven innings at Comerica Park. It went much differently for him Friday.
The Tigers staked him to an early lead. Riley Greene hit a two-out, two-run home run in the first (429 feet to right) and Dingler hit a two-run homer in the second. Both were off first-pitch offerings from Royals starter Seth Lugo, who was making his first start since May 11 (right middle finger inflammation) and lasted just 3.1 innings.
But it was clear early that the Royals were on Mize. After Jonathan India flew out to the track in left, Bobby Witt, Jr. launched a 442-foot homer to left.
“Just wasn’t commanding the ball very well,” Mize said. “Tough night for me, but the boys picked me up.”
Right-fielder Kerry Carpenter saved Mize two more runs in that first inning. With two on and two out, he tracked Drew Waters’ drive to the wall, catching it running nearly full speed into the wall — his shoulder and face absorbing most of the impact.
Mize walked two in the third inning around a double by Salvador Perez before Waters plated two with a bases loaded single.
He left runners at second and third in the fourth inning for lefty Brant Hurter, who bailed him out and kept the skinny lead by striking out Vinnie Pasquantino and getting Maikel Garcia to fly out.
The 14 balls the Royals put in play against Mize had a robust average exit velocity of 96.8 mph.
“Just too much miss or middle,” Mize said. “The fastball command wasn’t great and I left some splitters up. Just didn’t throw enough strikes, that was the big thing.”
As big as it was for Hurter to strand Mize’s runners in the fourth, it was just as important that he put up a zero in the fifth, passingthe baton to righty Brenan Hanifee with a pocket of right-handed hitters at the top of the Royals’ order coming up.
“Hurter has been really good for us,” Hinch said. “You don’t really expect to get out of that inning unscathed. That was a tough ask and we’ve had a couple of those innings in the last couple of games. It’s not a way we’re going to win but it’s nice when it works out.
“That inning really settled us in. Hurter can finish the inning at the bottom of their order and we have Hanifee up in case they pinch hit. We have the counter and we have the matchup we want.”
Hanifee was dinged for a single and a walk, but he got Perez to hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double-play.
The Royals cut the lead to one again in the bottom of the seventh. Hanifee got Garcia to hit a foul pop toward the Royals’ dugout. Torkelson got over but couldn’t corral the ball.
Garcia tripled on the next pitch. He scored on a sacrifice fly off Beau Brieske who finished the seventh.
But for all the traffic and tension, the Tigers never did surrender the lead.
“I think it goes to show that we’re doing the little things right,” Torkelson said. “Our pitchers are executing in big situations and we’re making plays behind them when we need to.”
The 38-20 record speaks to that, as well.
@cmccosky
