Salvador Perez powers offense as Royals roll past fading Tigers 5-1

The distance between the entrance to the Tigers clubhouse and the entrance to the visitors clubhouse at Comerica Park spans about 50 paces. The distance between the two baseball clubs on display on Tuesday night has not been this wide in years, even before the Royals captured a 5-1 victory.

Rulers of the American League Central since 2011, Detroit entered a rebuilding phase last week, selling off ace David Price and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, punting on a playoff chase with their record well below .500. In the same span of time, Kansas City accumulated talent as never before, trading for former All-Stars Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist.

The dichotomy became even starker during the afternoon, when the Tigers announced the departure of general manager Dave Dombrowski, the architect of their recent success. The maneuver caught his team by surprise, along with the rest of the game.

“Just kind of a shock to everybody,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said.

Inside the Royals clubhouse, there was only tranquility. Acoustic guitars streamed through the stereo. Well-rested and ensconced in first place by a comfortable margin, the players prepared for the status quo, another night, another game, another eventual victory.

“Back on this grind, boy,” Lorenzo Cain shouted, apparently to no one, as he scooped a baseball bat from his bag to take pregame batting practice. “That day off was nice, but we back on this grind.”

The grind translated into a breezy triumph on Tuesday. Danny Duffy (5-5, 4.04 ERA) spun seven innings of one-run ball, operating under little stress against a Detroit lineup reduced by injuries and trades. He worked around five hits and four walks to keep the Tigers quiet. Manager Ned Yost thought Duffy threw “the best slider he’s had, probably all year long,” he said.

Salvador Perez notched his first three-hit game since May 22, with an RBI single and a two-run home run off fading Tigers ace Justin Verlander.

The Royals (63-42) rested on Monday. They had completed a taxing, bruising series in Toronto over the weekend, a four-game set that ended in recriminations from both sides and a pair of suspensions for the Blue Jays. Meanwhile, pundits on national television debated whether the Royals were “bad boys.”

The team looked relaxed on Tuesday. The soundtrack helped. With Duffy on the mound, he controlled the pregame music, so his usual mixture of reggae filled the clubhouse. There was little tension heading into the game, a rarity after two years of a rivalry, an acknowledgment that these clubs have passed each other in the night.

The two teams did not build their rosters in similar ways. The Royals have never given out a contract richer than $55 million to a free agent. The Tigers are rife with massive, second-generation contracts. The club still owes Verlander $112 million the next four seasons, in addition to owing Victor Martinez $54 million through 2018 and owing Miguel Cabrera $240 million through 2024.

In the past, Detroit’s financial flexibility provided an aid. The Tigers could afford to acquire Price from Tampa Bay, able to take on his nearly $20 million salary in 2015, whereas Kansas City could not. But the cash also allowed Dombrowski to build a prison of bad contracts around the franchise.

Martinez, 36, can hardly play the field, and he entered Tuesday’s game with a .674 on-base plus slugging percentage and 19 extra-base hits. Cabrera may still be this planet’s best hitter, but his aging has never been more apparent than this season. He has not played since July 3 due to a strained calf.

But Verlander may own the most onerous contract of them all. He resembles a shell of his former self, the six-time All-Star who earned both the American League’s Cy Young award and its Most Valuable Player trophy in 2011. He entered Tuesday’s game with a career-worst 4.86 ERA, and only saw that mark rise during the game.

In years past, Verlander blazed fastballs in the upper 90s and wielded three above-average offspeed pitches. Now, in Tuesday’s second inning, he grooved a 92-mph fastball down the pike to Perez, who smacked an RBI single.

“We wanted to attack him early,” Hosmer said. “He likes to get ahead, and we’re an aggressive team. If a guy is throwing strikes, we’re going to swing the bat. I think we did a good job of that tonight.”

Perez’s first hit scored Hosmer. Two innings later, Hosmer smoked his second single of the day off Verlander. Perez came up with a runner at first and two outs. The bat of Perez was bitingly cold heading into Tuesday. Since July he had hit .165 with a .458 OPS.

The cure for the common batting slump is a 93-mph fastball, flung over the heart of the plate, on the first pitch of an at-bat to an aggressive hitter. Perez belted the ball over the left-field fence.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” Perez said. “I don’t care who is on the mound. He left a couple pitches in the middle, over home plate.”

Kansas City kept accumulating runs. After a fifth-inning double by Omar Infante, Ben Zobrist plated him with a sacrifice fly. Singles by Kendrys Morales and Perez put Alex Rios in the position to bloop a hit into second, drive in a run and hustle for a double in the sixth.

The Tigers could not touch Duffy. He sidestepped the two legitimate jams he faced. In the fifth, he issued a pair of walks and surrendered a single to load the bases. But he induced a groundout by outfielder Anthony Gose, and shortstop Alcides Escobar threw home for the out. An infield fly by Rajai Davis ended the inning.

A bit of ineptitude from Tigers third baseman Nick Castellanos aided Duffy in the seventh. Castellanos had raked a leadoff triple. Duffy walked the next batter. But when Gose hit a grounder toward Mike Moustakas, who threw to second base for the force, Castellanos elected to sprint home. Omar Infante pegged Perez, who tagged Castellanos to finish the unorthodox double play.

“I’ve just got to hand it to our defense, man,” Duffy said. “They’re so good. They’re so good.”

Another infield fly by Davis ended this frame, as the Royals chugged toward another victory over a fading foe who is unlikely to challenge them in the American League Central.

“It was definitely a different feel coming into today,” Hosmer said. “It’s always tough for an organization, especially what they went through today, a lot of changes up top. It’s hard to focus in, lock in on a game.”

Royals 5, Tigers 1

LOB: Kansas City 7, Detroit 6. 2B: Rios (10), Infante (21). 3B: Castellanos (5). HR: S.Perez (16), off Verlander. RBIs: Zobrist (40), S.Perez 3 (46), Rios (17), V.Martinez (37). SB: Kinsler (8). S: A.Escobar. SF: Zobrist.

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 4 (Infante 3, L.Cain); Detroit 2 (R.Davis 2). RISP: Kansas City 2 for 8; Detroit 1 for 4. GIDP: Gose 2. DP: Kansas City 2 (Moustakas, Infante, Hosmer), (Moustakas, Infante, S.Perez).

Umpires: Home, Mark Wegner; First, Marty Foster; Second, Mike Winters; Third, Mike Muchlinski. Time: 2:41. Att: 35,039.

This story was originally published August 4, 2015 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Salvador Perez powers offense as Royals roll past fading Tigers 5-1."