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Bob Dutton’s vlog | Tigers 7, Royals 1
Avoiding that no-hitter was one of the few highlights the Royals mustered in the entire series. The Tigers romped to a 19-4 victory in Monday’s opener before posting successive 7-1 victories.
That’s a 33-6 cumulative pasting and leaves the Royals reeling at 45-57, which leaves them exactly where they were last year through 102 games.
Some of it was the Tigers.
Not all.
“We didn’t play well at all in this series,” third baseman Alex Gordon agreed. “All three games, nothing worked out for us. You want to say they had a lot of bloopers, but they were just aggressive and put the ball in play. Good things happen when you do that.”
Manager Trey Hillman characterized his club as “lethargic” after the quick turnaround from Tuesday’s game, which ended at 12:37 a.m. Wednesday because of a 2-hour, 20-minute rain delay.
“We gave some at-bats away today, simply because of a lack of concentration and effort,” he said. “It may not be effort. It may just be energy level. It’s one or the other.”
The Tigers had no such problem.
Galarraga carried a no-hitter into the seventh before David DeJesus led off with clean single to right on a full-count fastball.
“He kept coming inside on me,” DeJesus said. “I fouled a couple down the line, and I was able stay inside of one and hit it to right field.”
That eliminated the possibility of the Royals suffering a no-hitter for the second time in roughly three months after going nearly 35 years without it happening.
“After you get to the fifth or sixth inning,” Hillman said, “you worry about it. No doubt, especially since we’re a team that’s been no-hit already. Does it enter your mind? Yeah, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t once you get to the fifth and especially the sixth.”
Galarraga, 8-4, lost his shutout soon after DeJesus’ single and exited once the inning ended. His final line showed one run and three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.
“He had everything today,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “He had all three pitches with great location, downhill plane. That’s the best I’ve seen him.”
Casey Fossum and Todd Jones closed out Detroit’s sweep, which partially avenged two earlier three-game sweeps by the Royals.
The Tigers peppered Royals starter Zack Greinke for five runs and six hits in the first three innings. All attention then shifted to whether the Royals could break through against Galarraga.
Miguel Cabrera paced Detroit’s 13-hit attack with a two-run single in the third and an RBI single in the seventh. Magglio Ordoñez had two RBI singles.
The Tigers’ first three hitters — Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen — each scored twice. Ordoñez and Polanco had three hits apiece.
“The first two series, we didn’t see the true offensive production they have the capability to produce. This series, we did,” Hillman said. “You can make very few mistakes, and we made a lot of mistakes.”
DeJesus also had a double in the eighth against Fossum, but the Royals finished with just four hits. Mike Aviles’ hitting streak ended at 12 games after he went zero for four.
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