KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus was feeling ill even before Friday night’s
game
against Kansas City, so he told bench coach Gene Lamont in the second
inning that he was heading upstairs.
He missed having a front-row seat to watch his pitching staff’s magic act.
Just like Houdini making his greatest escapes, Anibal Sanchez and the Tigers bullpen wiggled out of jams
in every inning. Ian Kinsler and Miguel
Cabrera drove in a run apiece, and that was just enough to give the AL
Central-leading Tigers a 2-1 victory over the second-place Royals.
"We really had to fight for this one," Tigers catch Bryan Holaday said.
Sanchez
(6-3) scattered eight hits without a walk over seven innings, Joba
Chamberlain got out of a tense eighth, and Joe Nathan worked around a
single and a walk in the ninth for his 19th save — and give Detroit its
fifth straight win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium this season.
Nathan got Nori Aoki to ground out on a full-count pitch to end the game.
"Obviously we have to play them a lot more," Chamberlain said. "We just have to keep
grinding."
Salvador Perez drove in the only run for the Royals,
who squandered a solid start by Danny Duffy (5-9). He gave up both
runs, only one earned, while losing for the fourth time in five starts.
"Up against a guy like Sanchez," he said, "you can’t make any mistakes."
The Royals appeared to be 90 feet from tying it with no outs in the eighth, when
Aoki swiped second base and went to third when the throw from Holaday
squirted into center field.
While that was going on, though, plate
umpire Chad Fairchild was calling batter interference on Lorenzo Cain
for stepping into the way of the throw to second. Cain was out and Aoki
was forced to make the long, slow trot back to first base. He wound up
getting stranded by Chamberlain.
"That was a big play," said Lamont, himself a former catcher. "Chad made the right call.
I’m sure the Royals fans don’t think so, but he did make the right call."
After the Tigers opened the series with a 16-4 blowout Thursday night, Sanchez and Duffy
waged an entertaining pitchers’ duel. And just like when they met in
June, Sanchez was one run better.
Duffy surrendered a leadoff
double to Austin Jackson and an RBI single to Kinsler in the first
inning, and then gave up another run in the third when Cabrera hit a
lazy sacrifice fly.
Duffy wound up allowing five hits while striking out six without a walk. He departed after hitting the
Tigers’
Nick Castellanos leading off the seventh inning, but Kelvin Herrera —
who hit the first batter he faced — managed to wiggle out of the jam
without any more damage.
Meanwhile, Sanchez was churning through the Royals lineup.
They
scored their only run in the first inning when Eric Hosmer stretched a
single into a double and Perez followed with a base hit. Sanchez struck
out Billy Butler to end the inning, and then kept Kansas City at bay
over the next six — though none of them was clean.
Sanchez worked
around a single in the second, a double in the third, a leadoff single
in the fourth, and singles in the fifth and sixth innings without
another run.
His tensest moment came in the seventh, when Mike
Moustakas doubled off the wall in center field, missing a tying homer by
a couple of feet. The Royals advanced
Moustakas to third with a groundout, but Sanchez induced two more
groundouts — one a magnificent spinning stab by shortstop Eugenio Suarez
— to quietly end the threat.
"Same thing we see every time. He
was unreal," Moustakas said. "He’s so good at commanding his pitches and
mixing speeds with different pitches and different counts. He’s a tough
at-bat any time. He commands both sides of the plate with all of his
pitches, and he adds and subtracts his fastball. He does whatever he
wants."
NOTES: Sanchez is 5-2 with a 1.08 ERA in his career against the Royals. … Tigers DH Victor Martinez
(strained left side) missed his fifth straight game.
Kinsler replaced him on the AL All-Star roster Friday. … The Royals were 1 for 12 with runners in
scoring position. … The Royals activated Aoki (strained left groin) from the DL and optioned INF
Christian Colon to Triple-A Omaha before the game. … Tigers RHP Rick Porcello faces Royals RHP James
Shields on Saturday.
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