Tigers Snap 5-Game Losing Streak, Beat Royals 4-3
Kansas City, Mo. - The Detroit Tigers snapped a 5-game losing streak after defeating the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Saturday night.
Royals' Carlos Hernandez (0-1) threw 1 ⅓ innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.
Three of those runs came in the first inning when Niko Goodrum's RBI single and Austin Romine's two-run double added three to the board. The Tigers notched one more run in the following inning from Willi Castro's RBI single, making it 4-1.
Willi Castro has pulled ahead of Luis Robert in fWAR among AL rookies, trailing only Seattle's Kyle Lewis. He gets an RBI single, then is replaced by Brandon Dixon for some sort of injury after something caused concern during his at-bat. 4-1 Tigers.
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) September 26, 2020
Circling back to the first inning, Tigers lefty Matthew Boyd (3-7) gave up his 15th home run of the season when Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi sent Boyd's four-seamer 426 feet into the left-center seats.
Mondesi finished the night with a HR, double and two RBI. The 25-year-old's double at the bottom of the third sent Whit Merrifield home to trail the Tigers by two runs.
Soon after, Maikel Franco's infield single to second scored Mondesi, giving Kansas City their final run of the night, making the score 4-3.
Boyd finished the day with six innings under his belt, allowing three runs on five hits.
Sunday's Series Finale
RHP Jordan Zimmerman (0-0, 9.64 ERA) will make his tenth career start against the Royals on Sunday. Rookie left-hander Tarik Skubal (1-3, 6.0 ERA) follows the veteran pitcher.
The Royals starting arm will be Brady Singer (3-5, 4.40 ERA).
The finale initially was planned to start at 3:05 p.m. EST; however, it was pushed forward to 1:05 p.m. EST due to inclement weather.
With slight rain, the projected start time for this matchup is 2:40 p.m. per Fox Sports Detroit.
This matchup could be the Tigers' final game of the season. Detroit will play a doubleheader tomorrow if the Cardinals lose to the Brewers and the Giants beat the Padres Sunday night.
The projected starter for Game 1 is Tigers' Casey Mize.
Tigers-Royals moved up two hours tomorrow to try to beat the weather. MLB tries to set up every game to start around 3pm ET on last day of regular season, but this one obviously won't impact any playoff races. https://t.co/1wdvdGMPjr
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) September 26, 2020
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