Royals surrender six home runs in 10-4 loss to Detroit
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Royals pitcher Luke Hochevar has faced the Detroit lineup enough over the years that he should be keenly aware of how dangerous Victor Martinez, Miguel Cabrera and the rest of them can be.
Lest he forgot, they gave Hochevar a nice reminder Thursday night.
Cabrera hit a go-ahead two-run homer off him, James McCann also took the reliever deep, and Martinez had three homers against other Kansas City pitchers in a 10-4 victory to open their four-game series.
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"They have a good lineup, but then again you don't want to go into it tying your own hands," Hochevar said. "You've still got to go out and pitch your game, pitch your strengths and attack them and trust your stuff is good enough to get them out."
It wasn't on Thursday night. Not by about 400 feet.
Hochevar (1-1) took the loss, but just about everyone got in on the act. Starting pitcher Danny Duffy gave up a trio of homers, and Chien-Ming Wang served up Martinez's third in the ninth inning.
"You don't usually see that many home runs in this ballpark," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.
Justin Verlander (7-5) allowed four runs on eight hits over seven innings, continuing his mastery of the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Verlander improved to 13-5 in 22 starts in the ballpark.
Not only did the Royals' five-game win streak end, so did their nine game home winning streak. It was their longest since reeling off 11 consecutive victories from March 31 to May 5, 2003.
"I hung the bullpen out to dry," Duffy said. "I didn't have my best stuff. I didn't feel my best. That's one thing people who stick around here do, is battle when they don't feel as good as they normally do."
Eibner tweaked his approach at the plate tonight against Tigers. The result? 2 for 4 & a homer off Verlander.https://t.co/u4WduL2Iy1
— FOX Sports KC (@FSKansasCity) June 17, 2016
The Tigers still absorbed a big loss in their come-from-behind win: J.D. Martinez left the game in the second inning after slamming into the wall while chasing a fly ball. The outfielder was taken for X-rays that revealed a non-displaced fracture of his right elbow, and he's due to have a CT scan Friday.
He'll be out up to six weeks and Steven Moya was on his way to replace him.
"We feel bad for J.D. It looked innocent," the Tigers' Ian Kinsler said.
The Royals were in control until their normally staunch bullpen let them down. Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain drove in runs in the first inning to give them the lead, and Brett Eibner -- fresh off the disabled list -- matched Victor Martinez's first homer by driving in a run in the bottom of the second.
Martinez and Castellanos went deep off Royals starter Duffy in the fourth, tying the game, before Eibner connected leading off the fifth for the first home run of his career.
Eibner looked like he would be the hero until the Royals' relievers began throwing batting practice.
McCann's tying shot cleared the wall in spacious Kauffman Stadium with plenty of room to spare, and the home run by Cabrera -- his 12th career homer at The K -- just cleared the wall in right field.
Martinez capped the big night for the Tigers offense with his no-doubt homer in the ninth.
"Definitely, I felt pretty good," said Martinez, who was back in the lineup after getting some rest for a bothersome knee. "But the most important thing was to put together a good game like that."
ROSTER MOVES
Eibner, who had been out with a sprained left ankle, arrived about an hour before first pitch and was put right into the lineup. The Royals optioned OF Reymond Fuentes to Triple-A Omaha to make room for him.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Tigers: OF Cameron Maybin got the night off with tightness in his quad.
Royals: LF Alex Gordon (broken wrist) took batting practice for the second straight day, hitting a series of homers into the fountains. Yost said he could begin a rehab assignment this week.
UP NEXT
Tigers RHP Michael Fulmer has won five straight games, allowing one earned run over 34 1/3 innings, and has thrown at least six shutout innings in each of his last four starts. He'll face Royals RHP Yordano Ventura, who struck out a season-high 10 in a win over the White Sox last Sunday.
