Royals notebook: Galarraga shows he belongs in Tigers’ rotation
By RYAN YOUNG
The Kansas City Star
Detroit’s Armando Galarraga has bounced around in his career. He’s in his third organization. He’s pitched for three different minor league teams and two Major League clubs since the start of last season.
But the 26-year-old right-hander has found a home in the Tigers’ rotation — and among the American League ERA leaders — this year.
On Wednesday, he showed the Royals why.
Galarraga took a perfect game into the seventh inning before yielding a leadoff single to David DeJesus. He would leave after the seventh, yielding three hits, one walk, one earned run and finishing with a career-high seven strikeouts.
“I think he’s pretty comfortable,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said afterward. “I think he feels like he belongs here.”
Galarraga had never pitched in Kauffman Stadium — or faced the Royals, for that matter — before Wednesday. But he looked pretty comfortable there, too.
Throwing a lot of sinkers and sliders, he retired the first 18 Royals batters he faced, while allowing only two balls to leave the infield during the first six innings.
Galarraga was signed as a nondrafted free agent in 1998 by the then-Montreal Expos and traded to Texas before the 2006 season in the deal that sent Alfonso Soriano to Washington. And Texas sent him to Detroit this February for Michael Hernandez.
Galarraga started this season at Class AAA Toledo before moving into the Tigers’ rotation April 16. Since then, he’s posted an 8-4 record and 3.27 ERA, which ranked 10th in the AL as of early Wednesday evening.
He has, indeed, settled in with the Tigers. But he doesn’t want to feel too comfortable.
“I always try to feel pressure — that’s good,” Galarraga said. “You don’t want to get comfortable. You want to believe in yourself that you can do it, but never comfortable.”
Jinxing the pitcher
The fans at Kauffman Stadium made sure Galarraga was aware of his bid for a perfect game, reminding him as he walked off the field between innings, he said.
“I don’t try to think so much (about it),” he said. “In the eighth or ninth (inning), yeah. But sixth is still early.”
The Royals were well aware of the situation, as well.
“I knew it because I was DH’ing, and I was in the cage and had to hear Ryan (Lefebvre) talk about it all of the time,” David DeJesus said. “Yeah, we knew it. He had that slider working. He was pretty good.”
DeJesus, of course, was the one to end that perfect game bid, roping a fastball into right field for a single to start the bottom of the seventh inning.
“You can’t worry about that. You’ve just got to go up there and try to do the job,” he said. “You try not to put too much pressure on yourself to where you’re going to make a different swing from what you would normally do.”
German gets in the game
Royals manager Trey Hillman said before the game Wednesday that he would continue to find ways to get Esteban German onto the field — especially now that German’s bat is showing signs of resurgence.
German has 11 hits in 22 July at-bats, raising his batting average to .247. A career .286 hitter entering the season, he was hitting a meager .097 on May 23 and entered July with a .169 average.
He found his way into the game Wednesday in the top of the sixth inning as a defensive replacement for second baseman Mark Grudzielanek. German drew a walk in his first plate appearance and flied out in the ninth.
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To reach Ryan Young, call 816-234-7747 or send e-mail to ryoung@kcstar.com.
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