Daily Clips
May 30, 2017
LOCAL
Hosmer's homer isn't enough after 'pen labors
May 30, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan and Jason Beck/MLB.com
Whit falls single shy of Royals' cycle history
May 30, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Duffy out 6-8 weeks with strained oblique
Club to promote No. 3 prospect Skoglund for Tuesday's start
May 29, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Royals’ Whit Merrifield on cycle attempt: “That ovation I got ... it was special.”
May 30, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Skoglund will make first MLB start vs. Tigers
May 30, 2017By Wilson Alexander/MLB.com
Hammel, Soria sink Royals in 10-7 loss to the Tigers
May 29, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Royals pitcher Danny Duffy placed on disabled list with oblique strain
May 29, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Royals pitcher Eric Skoglund will make major-league debut on Tuesday
May 29, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
MINORS
Torres Drives in 4 as Chasers Win 5th Straight
SS Ramon Torres batting .346 (36-104) with 22 RBI in May
May 29, 2017 By Andrew Green/Omaha Storm Chasers
Rallying Magic Runs Out in One-Run Loss
Rocks Strand Tying Run at Third
May 29, 2017By Wilmington Blue Rocks
Legends' four-run eighth seals 6-2 win
May 29, 2017By Lexington Legends
MLB TRANSACTIONS
May 30, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Hosmer's homer isn't enough after 'pen labors
May 30, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan and Jason Beck/MLB.com
In a battle of whose bullpen could hang on last, it was the Tigers' relievers who finally secured a lead in the end during a wild 10-7 victory over the Royals on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Tigers relievers Alex Wilson and Justin Wilson finally restored some order: Alex Wilson pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and Justin Wilson worked a scoreless ninth for his fourth save.
"It was a little bit of a roller coaster," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said, "but it was nice to see the bats break out."
The Royals' bullpen was involved in surrendering a 3-0 lead during a six-run fifth inning as Victor Martinez hit a two-run double off Mike Minor and J.D. Martinez followed with a three-run homer. Minor came into the game with a 1.69 ERA.
The Royals fought back with two runs in the sixth off Tigers reliever Shane Greene. Then, Eric Hosmer smashed an opposite-field home run off reliever Francisco Rodriguez in the seventh, and the Royals had a 7-6 lead.
But Royals right-hander Joakim Soria, who came into the game with a 1.59 ERA, faced five batters and all five reached during a four-run eighth. Soria gave up an RBI single to Alex Presley, and threw a wild pitch that scored another run, giving Detroit an 8-7 lead. Left-hander Matt Strahm relieved Soria and after getting a strikeout, he gave up a two-run single to Miguel Cabrera.
"[Soria] just wasn't sharp," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Just battled command. Just struggled to find command. Just shows you how funny this game can be. Two of our best relievers in Minor and Soria, I mean they've been consistently good all year. They took some damage tonight. It's a hard game to go out and be great every night."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Going for the cycle: Whit Merrifield had a chance for a cycle -- it would have been the Royals' first since George Brett did it on July 25, 1990 -- when he came up in the seventh. But Merrifield flied out to medium right-center. Merrifield also was going for the rare reverse cycle -- homer, triple, double and single -- and he would have been just the seventh in Major League history to accomplish that feat, according to research done by the YES Network. Rajai Davis was the last to do the reverse cycle with the Indians in 2016.
J-Mart launches: The Tigers wiped out a 3-0 deficit when Royals starter Jason Hammel suddenly lost his command in the fifth.. Hammel gave up a single and three walks, the last of which came to Cabrera with the bases loaded, making it 3-1. Victor Martinez greeted Minor with a two-run double. J.D. Martinez then crushed a three-run homer for a 6-3 lead.
"I just got too cute there," Hammel said. "I needed to get back in the strike zone there. Not really anything hit hard, but I just got hurt by the walks. I felt really good about the first four innings."
QUOTABLE
"I think it's hard to relax when you lose three games in Houston and three games in Chicago. There was a lot of pressure in the clubhouse, a lot of pressure in the game. But today we go out there and play baseball. We stopped thinking about the bad things we do in the past, the mistakes we do in the past, we come in today to play baseball. Hopefully we can do that tomorrow and the rest of the season." -- Cabrera, on the Tigers' focus
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
J.D. Martinez's home run traveled a projected 435 feet with an exit velocity of 110 mph, according to Statcast™. It was his eighth home run since returning from the disabled list on May 12. Four have measured 425 feet or longer, and five have had an exit velocity of 109 mph or higher.
REPLAY REVIEWS
Moments after Daniel Norris ran down Alcides Escobar on a first-inning pickoff, the Tigers saved him some pitches by challenging Lorenzo Cain's infield single. After a 36-second review the call was overturned, as replay officials determined that Jose Iglesias' acrobatic throw from deep in the hole at shortstop beat Cain to the bag, ending the first inning.
The Royals challenged an out call in the third inning when second baseman Andrew Romine bobbled the throw from shortstop Iglesias on a potential force play as Alex Gordon slid into the base. After a 38-second review, the call was overturned.
WHAT'S NEXT
Tigers: Right-hander Justin Verlander has struggled on the road this season (2-3 with a 7.64 ERA), but he's 13-5 with a 2.98 ERA for his career at Kauffman Stadium. One of these trends will hold when Verlander takes the mound for the second game of the series on Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Royals: Left-hander Eric Skoglund, ranked as the Royals' No. 3 prospect by MLBPipeline.com, is expected to make his Major League debut in a start on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. CT against the Tigers. Skoglund, 24, is 2-3 with a 4.53 ERA at Triple-A Omaha this season.
Whit falls single shy of Royals' cycle history
May 30, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Whit Merrifield nearly became the first Royals batter to hit for the cycle in 27 years on Monday night at Kauffman Stadium.
When Merrifield came up to the plate in the eighth inning needing only a single to complete the cycle in the Royals' eventual 10-7 loss to the Tigers, here's the advice he got from first-base coach Rusty Kuntz:
"He said, 'Hit a homer and miss first base,'" Merrifield said.
Merrifield instead flied out to right against Tigers right-hander Alex Wilson.
"I got the pitch I was looking for, a changeup," Merrifield said. "I got the barrel on it, just got it up too much. I would have liked to have had that back."
Still, Merrifield, who extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a third-inning homer, said he'll remember the experience.
"Opportunities like that don't come around very often," Merrifield said. "Just the ovation I got before that last at-bat, that's something I'll take with me awhile. That was really cool."
Merrifield would have become the first player for the Royals to hit for the cycle since Hall of Famer George Brett did so on July 25, 1990, in Toronto. Merrifield was 18 months old when that happened.
Merrifield said no one told him who was the last.
"I'm guessing it was George, though," Merrifield said. " ... Any time your name's next to George's, it would look good."
Merrifield also nearly became just the seventh player in history to accomplish the cycle in reverse order: home run, triple, double, single -- that's according to research done by the YES Network. Rajai Davis was the last to do it in 2016 with the Indians.
Merrifield hit his sixth homer this season in the third, tripled in the fourth, and doubled in the sixth.
"I was seeing the ball really well," Merrifield said. "[Tigers left-hander Daniel Norris] has a really good arm, an electric arm. I was doing a good job of not trying to do too much."
It was quite the show for manager Ned Yost to watch.
"He had a great night," Yost said. "I sat there at his last at-bat trying to remember if I've ever had a player that hit for the cycle. I think you would probably remember that, and I didn't remember one. I was really rooting for him."
Duffy out 6-8 weeks with strained oblique
Club to promote No. 3 prospect Skoglund for Tuesday's start
May 29, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
The Royals suffered a major blow to their rotation when an MRI on Monday revealed that ace left-hander Danny Duffy suffered a Grade 1 oblique strain that will require him to miss 6-8 weeks.
Duffy sustained the injury in Sunday's 10-1 loss to the Indians when he stretched and tumbled while trying to cover first base.
The club has yet to place Duffy on the 10-day disabled list, but that move is imminent. The Royals also announced they plan on having Triple-A Omaha left-hander Eric Skoglund make his Major League debut in a start against the Tigers on Tuesday.
It's likely that the corresponding move for Duffy will be the callup of Skoglund, who also must be added to the 40-man roster, which presently sits at 39.
"This is a big time for us to turn around the ship," Duffy said. "But I know the boys are going to pick me up. I'll be fresh and ready to go in 6-8 [weeks] or whatever they say. I'm going to try and come back sooner than that. I want to win and help this team win.
"Very bummed out today, but I'm going to keep the same mentality and keep the boys in it."
Duffy began to feel discomfort last night in his right side.
"When I woke up this morning, I could barely get up," Duffy said. "It happens. It's baseball. If I get over [to first] in time, we're not even talking about this. I take full responsibility."
Duffy was late covering the base on a ground ball by Michael Brantley to Eric Hosmer. Duffy took the toss from Hosmer, but Duffy missed touching the bag before spilling to the ground.
"I overran the bag and tried to take two steps with my left foot," Duffy said. "I tried to brace to protect [my left arm]. You all saw what happened. It was probably the least athletic thing I've done."
News of the injury had Duffy's teammates shaking their heads.
"It's terrible," catcher Salvador Perez said. "Best pitcher on the team. But it's part of the game. Part of life. We've got to handle it."
Royals right-hander Ian Kennedy added, "Danny and [Nathan Karns] are hurt, and me coming back from injury. We're pretty banged up right now. But we went through this last year. It's hard to replace [Duffy], though."
Royals manager Ned Yost said simply that the young pitchers, such as Skoglund and perhaps right-hander Jake Junis, will have to step up.
"It's an opportunity for them," Yost said.
Skoglund was a third-round pick in the 2014 Draft and he is ranked as the club's No. 3 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. The 24-year-old is 2-3 with a 4.53 ERA at Omaha this season.
Skoglund will make first MLB start vs. Tigers
May 30, 2017By Wilson Alexander/MLB.com
Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander will look to bounce back after one of his worst starts of the season in the middle game against the Royals on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.
Verlander (4-3, 4.87 ERA) will oppose Royals left-hander Eric Skoglund, who will make his first Major League start. Skoglund, ranked as the club's No. 3 prospect by MLBPipeline.com, is 2-3 with a 4.53 ERA in eight starts for Triple-A Omaha.
After giving up six earned runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Astros in his previous start, Verlander faces a team he's beaten more than any other opponent in his 13-year career. He is 22-9 with a 3.23 ERA overall against the Royals, the most wins of any active pitcher vs. Kansas City. He's 13-5 with a 2.98 ERA in 22 starts at Kauffman Stadium.
"You never know what's going to happen anytime you take the mound, but I've enjoyed pitching here," Verlander said. "I like the way the mound sets up. Some times some ballparks just look better than others, but these guys have a good team, good lineup, so you never take anything for granted. You just go out there and make your pitches until the manager says you're done."
Verlander has struggled on the road this season -- 2-3 with a 7.64 ERA -- having allowed eight home runs in six starts. By contrast, he is 2-0 with a 1.61 ERA and has yielded one home run in four home starts. He believes the split is an anomaly based on a small sample size.
Things to know about this game
• Royals rookie Jorge Bonifacio went hitless (0-for-4) in the series opener after hitting .325 (13-for-40) with five home runs and 10 RBIs in his previous 11 games.
• Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera is hitting .306 (34-for-110) with 21 RBIs over his last 30 games after posting a .107 average in his first eight games of the season.
• If the Royals are to make more of a push, the offense will have to be better hitting with runners in scoring position. During a recent nine-game road trip, the club went 5-for-56 (.089).
Hammel, Soria sink Royals in 10-7 loss to the Tigers
May 29, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Jason Hammel came apart early. Joakim Soria tripped up late. On a calamitous Memorial Day at Kauffman Stadium, one defined by a potentially crippling injury to starter Danny Duffy, the Royals offered a gut punch and a late twist: They lost a game that they seemingly controlled twice.
The final score said that the Royals lost to the Tigers 10-7 on the opening night of a three-game series. Yet the basic details could not quite capture the chaotic, seesaw nature of this contest. On an idyllic Monday, the Royals built a 3-0 lead, Whit Merrifield came within a single of the cycle, and Eric Hosmer played momentary hero with a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh. And in the end, it was all for naught.
“It just didn’t work out,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Hammel, the Royals’ maligned veteran starter, crashed into the wall in the fifth, issuing three walks that served as the accelerant in a four-alarm fire. When the inning was over, reliever Mike Minor had surrendered a booming three-run homer to Detroit’s J.D. Martinez and the Tigers had scored six runs, erasing a 3-0 lead.
Three innings later, Soria suffered a similar fate, allowing four runs in the eighth as the Tigers turned a 7-6 deficit into a 10-7 lead. When Salvador Perez recorded the final out in the ninth, the Royals (21-29) had dropped to 6-16 against the American League Central and 0-1 in a 10-game home stand that will also feature visits from the defending American League champion Cleveland Indians and the beastly Houston Astros, who improved to 36-16 on Monday after an epic comeback against the Minnesota Twins.
In that sense, the Royals did not lose any ground Monday, remaining 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Twins. Yet, everything else about the day was borderline disastrous. The club will spend the next six to eight weeks without Duffy, who suffered a Grade 1-plus oblique strain following an awkward fall Sunday in Cleveland. That loss, as much as Monday night’s letdown, could serve to shape the rest of the season.
In the moments after the loss, Hammel said he got “too cute” after cruising through the first four innings. The Royals offered three runs of support. He spent the next inning nibbling at the corners. Hammel walked Alex Presley, the Tigers’ No. 8 hitter, to open the inning. He walked catcher Avila to load the bases for Miguel Cabrera. Then, another walk.
“You get the 3-0 lead there, I got to get back and stay in the strike zone like I was,” Hammel said. “The walks, basically, are what bother me the most tonight. (There were) not really any hard-hit balls. I got us into trouble with the walks. So that’s on my shoulders.”
Soria, meanwhile, left without speaking to reporters, continuing his season-long tradition of eschewing interviews with the media. For most of the year, the custom has treated him just fine. He entered Monday with a 1.59 ERA, allowing just one run in May. Along with Minor, who also struggled Monday, Soria has been the Royals’ best reliever. This time, he issued two walks and surrendered four runs.
“He just wasn’t sharp,” Yost said. “He battled command.”
On Tuesday, the Royals will counter Detroit starter Justin Verlander with left-handed rookie Eric Skoglund, who will make his first career start. It will offer another stiff test. But first, they set about wasting an early lead Monday night.