Tigers bullpen implodes in 13-2 Royals win

The Royals are in a really weird stretch of games at the moment.

They have scored at least five runs in five of their last ten games. They have also been blown out of the water four times in those last ten games, being outscored 54-2 in those games.

Rest in peace, Royals pythag.

It looked like tonight was going to be a very sensible baseball game, with the contest being knotted at 2-2 going into the 7th inning.

The Royals proceeded to explode for 11 runs in the 7th and 8th innings to take the series (and the series run differential, somehow), with a 13-2 win.

Matthew Boyd got the ball for the Tigers, whom the Royals have tattooed over his eight career starts against Kansas City. Despite this, Boyd’s first six innings went pretty well.

He ran into a little speed bump in the 2nd, with Salvador Perez jumping on a letter-high fastball from Boyd in the second and put it over the left-center field fence to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Mike Moustakas followed with a single and was driven in on an Alcides Escobar two-out triple to put the Royals up 2-0.

Yes, you read that right. Moustakas scored from first. Those Comerica Park alleys are no joke.

On the other side, Jason Hammel put together a nice little bounce back start, as he gave up just two runs over his six innings of work, striking out six Tigers in the process.

However, after giving up a run in the 4th, an Ian Kinsler homer tied the game up at 2-2 in the 5th.

Then all hell broke lose.

After the two-run second, Boyd managed to get into a nice groove, giving up just two more hits from the 3rd through the 6th.

He came out for the 7th and was greeted with back-to-back doubles from Escobar and Alex Gordon, prompting Brad Ausmus to call on Warwick Saupold to alleviate the damage.

He did no such thing.

The Royals greeted Saupold with back-to-back-to-back hits, two of which were doubles. When the dust had settled, the Royals had five straight hits, four being doubles, and had taken a 5-2 lead.

Ausmus then replaced Saupold with Jairo Labourt, inheriting runners on second and third with, still, nobody out. He managed to get Hosmer to strike out swinging and induce a Moustakas double play, but not before a passed ball brought in Lorenzo Cain to put the Royals up 6-2.

That would have been enough, but the Royals weren’t even close to being done.

Joe Jimenez came out to pitch the top of the 8th for the Tigers and began by giving up singles to Jorge Bonifacio and Escobar. It was Escobar’s third hit of the night, putting him just a homer away from the cycle. He would actually get another at-bat in the 9th, but would settle for another single and a four-hit game.

After a Gordon fly out, Whit Merrifield doubled in two on a shot to the right-center field gap, putting the Royals up 8-2.

It was then that Yost began pulling the starters, pinch hitting Paulo Orlando for Cain. The bench also wasn’t friendly to the Tigers bullpen, as Orlando singled to boost the lead to 9-2.

After a Melky Cabrera single, Hosmer cleared the bases on a bone-crushing double to right-center field. Perez then brought everybody home with his second homer of the night, ending the slaughter at a 13-2 clip.

In total, the Royals tallied 18 hits, 13 of which came after the 6th inning. Kansas City also tallied a season-high 10 extra-base hits, the most the Royals have had in a game since July 29, 2011. In that game, Billy Butler was the Royal with two homers. Alex Gordon also homered and doubled. Alcides Escobar doubled twice and our old friends Jeff Francoeur and Brayan Pena also doubled. Ironically enough, the other Royals home run came from Melky Cabrera.

The win brought the Royals back to .500 at 69-69, also allowing for a nice leap past Seattle and Tampa Bay in the Wild Card standings, where Kansas City remains just 2.5 games back.

And wouldn’t you know it, they will begin a huge four-game set tomorrow against the team they are chasing for that spot in the Minnesota Twins.

The Royals aren’t dead just yet.

Up Next: Royals v. Twins, September 7, 2017, 7:15 PM CDT, Kauffman Stadium. RHP Sam Gaviglio (3-5, 4.62 ERA) v. RHP Kyle Gibson (9-10, 5.33 ERA)