Hochevar, Royals Drop Series Opener in Detroit 6 - 2

Despite having Billy Butler raise his career batting average against Justin Verlander to .396 with a three-for-four night and Alex Gordon hanging dong off the reigning AL Cy Young Award Winner, the Royals offense was only able to muster two runs against the Detroit Tigers. The Royals spread nine hits across Verlander's eight innings pitched, nearly matching their hit total with strikeouts (eight) while not drawing a single walk.

Given that the Royals managed only two runs and the fact that the Royals' starting pitcher was Luke Hochevar, anyone familiar with the Royals could tell you what the outcome was this evening. The Royals lost.

Detroit had 12 hits off of Hochevar and added a base-runner by way of the base-on-balls for a baker's dozen Tigers on the basepaths. Three of those Tigers were erased by Hochevar's outfielders, with Jarrod Dyson having two outfield assists and Gordon adding another after Jeff Francoeur overthrew a ball to second that Gordon luckily backed up and threw out Austin Jackson, who made his Francoeurian second out on the basepaths by the end of the fifth inning. Unfortunately, the Tigers were already well on their way to a six-run game, proving to be more than enough support to back up their ace.