Royals pepper Pelfrey, pilfer 8-4 victory over Tigers

The Royals took home an 8-4 victory Saturday night after an early outburst that proved to be the difference.

Mike Pelfrey, whose struggles and frustrations have been noted, documented, archived, restored, and re-filed over at our sister site Bless You Boys, was not long for this game. After a typical Alcides Escobar out, Eric Hosmer doubled. Kendrys Morales then walked, none of which is particularly noteworthy. But then Salvador Perez walked, and you got the sense that this game was not going to go well for the Tigers starting pitcher.

It did not.

Gordon singled, driving in Hosmer. Paulo Orlando was then hit by a pitch, garnering him the much-sought-for HBP RBI. Cheslor Cuthbert followed with a single, and after a Christian Colon groundout, the score was 4-0 and the Royals had batted thru the order with Dyson recording the third out.

For his part, Duffy was a little more erratic than he has been recently. Seven strikeouts and only one walk looks good, but six hits and a home run would give the Tigers some opportunities that they would convert into four runs against the Czar of Gnar. He pitched into the seventh, but still seems to be hitting a wall around 90 pitches, as he was only able to record one out in the inning.

'Twas for naught, though, as Kansas City would add another run in the second on a wild pitch and three more in the fifth to give them a solid cushi

Peter Moylan, who looks like that guy you knew in high school that was really into Rancid and Black Flag and anti-establishment hoorah but then got his girlfriend pregnant and had to drop out of school to go into vocational training to support his new family and quickly discovered that there are more important things in life than tattoos and vandalism, came on in relief of Duffy and shut the Tigers down for 1.2 innings to get the game to the ninth with an 8-4 lead.

Wade Davis pitched in a non-save situation in the ninth in his first game back from the disabled list. He set Detroit down in order, including a strikeout. It was vintage. It was beautiful.

Tomorrow, Kansas City looks to take the series in the rubber game. Yordano Ventura (6-7, 5.15 ERA) can hopefully not suck as the Tigers counter with Michael Fulmer (9-2, 2.11 ERA) who can hopefully do not well.