KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There's always that moment in a baseball game, that pivotal moment where the outcome hangs in the balance. It can come early, late or somewhere in the middle innings.
That moment for the Tigers on Monday came in the eighth inning. They trailed 2-0 and had not scored a run in 20 innings. Not since Kerry Carpenter's three-run homer in the fifth inning Saturday in Seattle. They were shut out 2-0 Sunday in Seattle and seemed on the verge of enduring the same fate against the Central Division cellar-dwelling Royals.
Fitting, then, that it was Carpenter, who snapped the scoreless drought with a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning. Matt Vierling, who was 0-for-13 since the All-Star break, followed with a two-run double to right field and the Tigers beat the Royals 3-2 in the first game of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
Up to that moment, though, it as looking bleak.
Kansas City’s veteran right-hander Jordan Lyles, who came in with a 1-11 record and an ERA just under 7 (6.42), pitched six innings of scoreless baseball. The Tigers managed multiple hits in just one inning. Andy Ibanez and Akil Baddoo hit two-out singles in the fifth but a hard-hit ground ball by Eric Haase deflected off Lyles right to second baseman Michael Massey, who threw Haase out at first.
In the third inning, Ibanez walked and went to second on a wild pitch. Haase and Zach McKinstry followed with 759 feet of fly balls. Both were caught right in front of the wall in right center.
They didn’t produce another hit until Baddoo led off the eighth with a double off reliever Taylor Clarke. With two outs, Clarke hit Riley Greene in the shoulder blade with a 94-mph fastball and walked Spencer Torkelson. Royals manager Matt Quatraro made a hasty move to the bullpen, bringing in Jose Cuas, who had just started warming.
That was the moment.
Cuas didn't throw a single strike and Carpenter didn't chase. He happily took the free RBI and handed the baton to Vierling, who delivered the game-flipping hit.
Jason Foley pitched around a single and a stolen base in the eighth. With a huge assist from Baddoo. With Samad Taylor at second, he tracked a slicing drive by Kyle Isbel into the corner in left and made a lunging catch.
Alex Lange struck out Nick Pratto and Drew Waters and got Matt Duffy to ground out for his 15th save.
Tigers starter Matt Manning followed up his 6.2-inning, no-hit performance before the All-Star break with another solid start.
He gave up four singles and a pair of runs in 5.2 innings. Three of the hits and the two runs came in a three-hitter blip in the fourth inning.
Manning had good command of his four-seam fastball, slider and curveball – except in that three-batter stretch. He fell behind 3-1 to both MJ Melendez and Freddy Fermin and both singled. Manning made an errant pickoff throw to first that allowed Melendez to advance to second.
He scored on Fermin’s single. Left-fielder Baddoo’s throw went all the way to the plate, allowing Fermin to go to second. He then scored on a single by Nick Pratto.
The initial ruling by the official scorer was that both runs were unearned. That ruling could be changed by the league. An out can’t be assumed on the throw to first. Presumably one or both runs could end up being earned.
But that was the only smear on Manning’s night.
