Kansas City Royals avoid sweep
The Kansas City Royals defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 12 innings on Wednesday and avoided being swept by the Tigers at Comerica Park. The last time the Royals were swept in Detroit was in 2002.
The win by the Royals also snapped their six-game road losing streak.
Willie Bloomquist hit a solo shot in the 12th off Alfredo Figaro to complete the comeback. "I don't hit too many, but I assumed I got all of it. It was as far I could probably hit one," Bloomquist said of home run.
Kila Ka’aihue also had a solo shot for the Royals and finished the game with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Sean O’Sullivan started the game for the Royals pitching seven innings and allowing three runs and seven hits. Philip Humber picked up his first major league win after pitching three scoreless innings in relief. Joakim Soria pitched the 12th inning for the Royals converting his franchise-record 29th consecutive save. Soria now has 36 saves on the season.
Armando Galarraga got the start for the Tigers and was solid through 6 1/3 innings giving up only one run on five hits. However, the Royals were able to get to him in the seventh inning after a Ka’aihue solo shot made it 3-1 and back-to-back singles from Brayan Pena and Mitch Maier chased Galarraga out of the game. With one out in the seventh Phil Coke came in to the game for the Tigers and struck out the first two batters he faced to keep the lead at 3-1 and erasing any further damage.
The Royals eventually tied the game in the eighth inning. Mike Aviles made 3-2 after a double off the bat of Ka’aihue. Pena was then able to drive in Ka’aihue with an RBI double of his own to tie the score 3-3.
Both teams struggled in the ninth inning going down in order to go into extra innings. Detroit had chances in both the 10th and 11th innings putting men on first and second in each frame but failed to capitalize.
"This one hurts because we were four outs away from winning six in a row at home," Tigers catcher Gerald Laird said.
The Tigers failed to score in the first inning snapping a recent trend, as they had scored in the first inning in their previous six games. The Tigers scored all of their runs in second inning to build a 3-0 lead.
The Tigers and Royals have now faced each other 12 times this season with the series now tied 6-6.
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