Royals snap losing skid with crucial 5-2 win over Detroit

In front of a near-sold out crowd at Kauffman Stadium and a national audience, the Royals won a big game against the Detroit Tigers, taking the second game of the series 5-2. The Royals snapped a three-game losing streak and move to 70-65 on the season.

Yordano Ventura walked a tightrope all night, walking six hitters, tying a career high. He allowed runner in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, and fifth innings, but prevented the Tigers from getting a big hit to blow the game open. The only run he allowed was in the fourth, when J.D. Martinez led off with a double. He was pushed to third on a Tyler Collins single, but it looked like the Royals might get out of the inning unscathed when James McCann hit a double play ball, but Raul Mondesi made an errant throw to allow a run to score to make it 1-0 Detroit.

The Royals immediately got that run back and more in the bottom of the inning. Cheslor Cuthbert led off the inning with a double to right field, his 25th of the year. Then Eric Hosmer showed off for the national audience by smacking a two-run home run, reaching 20 home runs in a season for the first time in his career.

In the fifth, Ventura worked around Miguel Cabrera with a huge strikeout, then pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam to preserve the 2-1 lead. With two outs, Raul Mondesi and Jarrod Dyson each lay down perfect bunt singles to put two on. Cheslor Cuthbert followed up with an RBI single to make it 3-1 Royals.

Kendrys Morales led off with a single in the eighth, which made it TERRANCE GORE TIME! Gore very easily stole second base, causing the Tigers to intentionally walk Salvador Perez. A wild pitch moved both runners up, but Alex Gordon struck out for the first out. The wheels began turning for Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, who brought in Mark Lowe, who has been awful this year. Lowe immediately walked Paulo Orlando to load the bases, then gave up a single Alcides Escobar to score Gore. Mike Jirschele sent Salvador Perez on the play, who was able to avoid the tag on a close play at home that was confirmed by replay.

With a 5-1 lead, Ned put in Brooks Pounders to try to end the game without having to use Wade Davis on back-to-back nights. Ian Kinsler launched a hanging 0-2 slider into the Royals’ bullpen in left field for a solo home run. After a strikeout, Miguel Cabrera laced a single up the middle, ending Pounders’ night.

Wade Davis came in to finish things out and he looked like the Wade Davis of old, striking out Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez to win the game. The Royals snap their three game losing streak and while they trail the Wild Card for four games, they move ahead of the Yankees and Mariners. A win tomorrow can put them within two games of the Tigers with a stretch of 14 consecutive games against losing teams. This was a must-win game, and the Royals stepped up. Can they continue tomorrow afternoon?