Tigers fall short of sweep as Royals prevail in 10 innings

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Apr 20, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — The Tigers on Sunday were trying to do something not even the champion 1984 team did.

In the finale against the Royals, they were looking to become the first Tigers team in 83 years to win nine of its first 10 home games.

Didn’t happen.

The Kansas City Royals aborted both the bid for a chunk of history and a four-game sweep, beating the Tigers in 10 innings, 4-3, at Comerica Park before a crowd of 17,712.

A sacrifice fly by Bobby Witt Jr., scored the free runner in the top of the 10th inning against reliever Tyler Holton, who set down all six batters he faced in two innings.

The Tigers, who were without Kerry Carpenter the final two innings, couldn't score the free runner against reliever Carlos Estevez in the bottom of the 10th. Estevez, with runners at first and third, ended the game by getting Dillon Dingler to pop out.

Carpenter, who was due up third in the ninth inning, was pulled from the game in the top of the ninth. There was no immediate announcement of an injury.

Defensive misplays ended up costing both teams at the back end of this one.

The Tigers used an infield misplay to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh.

Zach McKinstry, whose two-out RBI single tied the game in the fifth inning, punched an RBI single to left to score Gleyber Torres.

Torres was on first with one out when first baseman Salvador Perez fielded a ground ball by Kerry Carpenter. Both the pitcher, lefty Daniel Lynch, and the second baseman, Makail Garcia, went to cover the base and Perez threw the ball right between them.

It was scored a single. McKinstry was up next and manager AJ Hinch, with right-handed hitter Andy Ibanez available off his bench, stuck with the lefty-lefty matchup.

McKinstry, now 7 for 17 against lefties, responded with the RBI knock, his third of the game.

They missed a chance to expand the lead when former Tiger and downriver native John Schreiber got Riley Greene to hit into a 3-2-3 double-play with the bases loaded.

The Tigers gave the lead back in the top of the eighth. With Tommy Kahnle pitching, third baseman Javier Baez made an errant throw to first on a leadoff ground ball by Bobby Witt Jr.

With one out, another former Tiger, Mark Canha cashed in with an RBI single.

It was a short outing for Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, something the Royals have done to him before. They grinded out at-bats, scratched a few singles and were a general nuisance.

They worked a couple of long innings, pushed his pitch count up and got him out of the game in five innings. That alone is a win for most teams.

But, bonus, they were also able to push across a couple of runs. They strung four singles off Skubal in second inning, including a two-strike RBI single by lefty-swinging Vinnie Pasquantino.

It was just the fifth hit and first RBI by a lefty off Skubal this season.

A bloop, two-out single by No. 9 hitter Drew Waters knocked in the second run.

Skubal still did a lot of Skubal-like things. He pounded the strike zone (18 of 23 first-pitch strikes), got 12 swings and misses (eight with his change-up on 23 swings) and 21 called strikes.

The 17 balls the Royals put in play off him had an average exit velocity of 88 mph, which is harder than Skubal has been hit on average this season (84 mph) but only one ball was hit harder than 100 mph.

His outing ended in the fifth when catcher Dillon Dingler threw out Witt trying to steal second. It was the second runner Dingler has nabbed in 10 attempts.

The Tigers’ hitters took Skubal off the hook in the fifth, finally stringing something together against veteran right-hander Michael Wacha.

For four innings, Wacha kept hitters off-balance by mixing his four-seam fastball and cutter with his elite change-up.

Colt Keith and Trey Sweeney, a pair of lefty hitters, started the fifth with singles. And just when it looked like Wacha was going to wriggle out of it, Carpenter and McKinstry delivered clutch two-out, RBI singles.