Tigers finish the sweep of Royals, who are none too pleased about it
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- All you need to know about the Tigers-Royals weekend series can come from a quote from skipper Ned Yost.
Yost was asked if there was anything positive at all to come out of the weekend at the hands of the Tigers.
"No. Not really," he said. "They're really hot right now and we're not."
OK, then. Yost's response was understandable. The Royals got outscored 26-8 in the series after Sunday's 9-4 whipping. The Royals now have lost four games in a row, have fallen two games under .500, haven't won yet in May (0-4) and are now five games out of first.
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The Tigers, meanwhile, have won five straight.
"They're hot and it seemed like everything they hit found a hole," said an unusually unhappy Billy Butler afterward. "They hit some balls hard, too. We'll see them again."
Outfielder Jarrod Dyson also wasn't in a merry mood, naturally, to discuss the Tigers' sweep.
"It's a long season," he said. "It's about what happens over the course of the whole season. We'll definitely see them again."
3 UP
-- Billy rescues the Royals from indignity. The soft-hitting and slumping Royals offense versus Justin Verlander seemed like it could be the perfect storm -- as in, a possible no-hitter. And for 5 2/3 innings it was eerily looking like Verlander was going to no-hit them. Then Butler lashed a solid single to right to end the bid.
Naturally, it was Butler who did the damage -- he came into the game a .437 lifetime hitter against Verlander. "There's no secret to hitting him," Butler said. "I just look for a good pitch to hit and try to put a good swing on it. It (his success against Verlander) could turn at any time."
-- Dyson muscles up. With all the talk about the Royals' lack of power, it was the speedster Dyson who muscled up and belted a two-run triple to get the Royals on the board in the seventh inning. Dyson drilled a high drive over Tigers right fielder Torri Hunter's head that bounced up against the wall.
That hit was probably the highlight of the weekend series -- it remains a great pleasure to watch Dyson fly around the bases for a triple. "I didn't get all of it," he said. "If I had gotten all of it, I'd have been jogging around the bases. But I hit it pretty good. I needed that one."
-- Collins solid in return. Left-hander Tim Collins came off the disabled list Sunday and immediately got work in the blowout. Down 7-0, Collins came on for starter Jason Vargas and threw two scoreless innings, striking out one. Collins had solid command, throwing 24 of his 31 pitches for strikes, against a hot-hitting Tigers team.
3 DOWN
-- Too quick with the white flag? Granted, skipper Yost has had some difficult managing decisions with a bullpen that has become overworked recently. On the other hand, either Yost had put too much faith in his rookie pitchers or he simply has gone for the white flag perhaps a bit prematurely in three of the past four games. On Thursday, Yost tried to sneak a second inning of relief out of rookie Michael Mariot against the Jays, trailing 4-3. That blew up when Mariot surrendered three runs, taking the Royals out of it in a 7-3 loss. On Saturday, the Royals were down only 3-0 (to be fair, that seems like a mountain right now) when Yost tried to sneak a second inning out of rookie Aaron Brooks -- six runs later, the Royals were out of it at 9-0.
On Sunday -- again, to be fair, the bullpen has been taxed lately -- Yost sent in Mariot after the Royals had come up with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to somewhat sneak back into the game at 7-3. That momentum was lost when Mariot gave up two quick runs in the eighth. Asked if that deficit margin was still too big to burn an inning out of Wade Davis, Yost said, "Yes. In that situation, we called down there and Wade said he would give us an inning if we needed it. But Holly (Greg Holland), on the other hand, said he could really use the inning of work. That's generally how we work it with the big guys."
-- Starter letdown. For the second time in the series, the Royals turned to one of their top starters to keep them close. And just like ace James Shields on Friday, Vargas wasn't up to the task Sunday. The left-hander got peppered for 11 hits and seven runs in just five innings. He threw only 63 strikes out of 107 pitches.
"They put some good swings on the ball," Vargas said. "They hit some balls that found some holes, too. And they hit some balls well."
That's two straight rough starts for Vargas after a brilliant start with his new team. "I really don't have an answer for that," Vargas said, shrugging his shoulders.
-- Infante almost gets drilled again. Second baseman Omar Infante nearly got hit in the left side of his face again Sunday. In the sixth inning, Verlander let loose a 0-2 fastball that rose up out of the zone and right toward Infante's head. Infante yanked his head back and hit the dirt just in time to avoid being hit. Since it was an 0-2 pitch and the Tigers were leading 7-0, and the Royals had yet to get a hit, Verlander obviously wasn't head-hunting. Verlander, in fact, walked toward the plate to see if Infante was OK.
You can follow Jeffrey Flanagan on Twitter at @jflanagankc or email him at jeffreyflanagan6@gmail.com.
