KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rough day at the office.
On a long, hot and languid day at Kauffman Stadium Monday, the Tigers lost both ends of a split doubleheader to the Royals, the only team beneath them in the Central Division standings.
After managing just four hits and losing 3-1 in the first game, they dug too deep a hole and lost the nightcap 7-3.
It was the Tigers' fifth loss to the Royals in the last six games.
Rookie Alex Faedo, called up from Triple-A Toledo to make his second straight start as the 27th man, did not survive two innings. He very nearly didn’t survive the first.
The strike zone eluded him. He walked three batters and gave up a double to Bobby Witt, Jr., in a 37-pitch, 17-strike first inning.
Lefty Tyler Alexander was warm and ready when Faedo got Emmanuel Rivera to line out to right with the bases loaded to end the inning. Amazingly, only one run crossed the plate.
Things got worse for Faedo in the second. He threw more strikes, but the Royals pounded out three straight singles before Faedo walked another. Faedo left with the bases loaded and two outs. He was at 60 pitches and had faced only 13 hitters.
Alexander, who ate 3.1 innings and allowed just one run, gave up RBI singles to the first two batters he faced, both runs charged to Faedo and the Tigers were in a fast 4-1 hole.
It was 5-1 before the Tigers started chipping away. They’d scored the first run four pitches into the game. Robbie Grossman reached on an error and scored on a double to center by Javier Baez.
Willi Castro, who got the start in center field, doubled and scored in the fourth inning. Then in the fifth, Miguel Cabrera shot a double inside the bag at third base, scoring Baez from first.
With that one swing Cabrera moved into a tie for 15th all-time in two categories – doubles (605, tying Paul Molitor) and RBI (1,836, tying Ken Griffey, Jr.).
Eric Haase followed with a single and with one out the Tigers had runners at the corners against Royals reliever Jose Cuas. Jonathan Schoop, though, banged into an inning-ending double-play.
They rallied again in the seventh against lefty reliever Angel Zerpa. Grossman, who had three hits, singled and went to second on a wild pitch. After Baez grounded out, Cabrera hit a 400-foot drive to the track in center field, tracked and caught by Kyle Isbel.
In the eighth, Haase and Schoop started the inning with singles and were stranded.
The Tigers were 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position. Frustrating. Spencer Torkelson hit three bullets his first three times up, 1,077 feet in combined flight -- all three were caught.
Things came unglued for the Tigers in the bottom of the eighth. A walk, a ball that eluded third baseball Jeimer Candelario was scored a hit, a bloop RBI single by Witt and a wild pitch and the Royals had a pair of add-on runs.
Tough night at the office.
