Royals notebook: Galarraga finds a home with the Tigers
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’s 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 left after the seventh, yielding three hits, one walk and one earned run and finished 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.
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 in the first six innings.
Galarraga was signed as a non-drafted free agent in 1998 by the then-Montreal Expos and traded to Texas before the 2006 season in a deal that sent Alfonso Soriano to Washington. Texas sent him to Detroit this February for Michael Hernandez.
Galarraga started this season at Class AAA Toledo before moving into the Tigers’ rotation on 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.”
Everybody knew
The fans at Kauffman Stadium made sure Galarraga was aware of his perfect game bid, 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 DHing, and I was in the cage and had to hear Ryan (Lefebvre) talk about it all of the time,” DeJesus said. “Yeah, we knew it. He had that slider working. He was pretty good.”
German has a role
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 a 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 began July with a .169 average.
He entered 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.
“He looks stronger. I think physically, he’s better than he was at the start of the season,” Hillman said. “That’s not to say that he wasn’t in shape. It’s just to say I think his working parts are feeling better and healthier.”
Hillman cited a sore wrist as one potential cause for German’s sluggish start.
“(German) would never use this as an excuse,” Hillman said. “But maybe that thing wasn’t back to full strength until maybe as recently as a month, month and a half ago. I certainly didn’t see the player that people told me about, especially offensively, until recently.”
Teahen, Gordon back
Mark Teahen and Alex Gordon returned to the lineup Wednesday — the first game that both left-handed hitters had started together since Sunday.
Teahen had been out of the lineup Monday, and both players sat Tuesday against Tigers left-hander Kenny Rogers.
“If we don’t get some help from those two left-handed guys … then we’re not going to have the run production that we need to have to win ballgames,” Hillman said before the game.
Teahen went zero for four with two strikeouts, dropping his average to .245, while Gordon was one for four to keep his average at .248.
To reach Ryan Young, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-7747 or send e-mail to ryoung@kcstar.com
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