The Royals had their opportunities early to get to Tarik Skubal. 1st and 3rd with two out in the 2nd, and Tyler Tolbert lined out to right field. A leadoff double from Maikel Garcia in the 3rd, and him being at 3rd base with 1 out, the Royals looked like they could at least scratch one run. But Vinnie Pasquantino got sent back on a 3-pitch strikeout and Salvy weakly grounded out to end the inning.
After that, it was over for the Royals offensively against Tarik Skubal. As the great Sun Tzu said, “The
opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” That seems like a rather good encapsulation of the top of the 5th inning.
Michael Wacha was untouchable through 4 innings, allowing just a bloop single. But a leadoff walk to Spencer Torkelson, a one out single made it 1st and 3rd. Backup catcher Jake Rogers, who has great career numbers against Wacha, crushed a ball to dead centerfield, a 2-2 sinker over the middle of the plate, Tolbert got turned and twisted around and crashed into the wall, but didn’t even come close to making the play.
If Tolbert makes that play it’s only 1-0, and the next batter flew out. However, after the flyout, it’s 2-0 with 2 outs, and the Tigers tacked on 2 more runs. Wacha’s final line was 4.2 innings, five hits, four runs, all earned, a walk and four strikeouts.
Daniel Lynch IV pitched a scoreless inning and a third but got pulled after a routine flyout was dropped between Tolbert and Nick Loftin in left field. Jonathan Bowlan would get out of the inning unscathed though. Sam Long would struggle in the 8th, walking a batter, hitting another and the run would score on a passed ball by Luke Maile. 5-0 Tigers going to the bottom half of the 8th.
Taylor Clarke pitched the 9th for the Royals; he worked a scoreless inning.
Tarik Skubal’s final line was 7 scoreless innings, four hits, two walks and four strikeouts.
The Royals finish the year just 4-9 against the Tigers, they are 70-67 on the season. Unfortunately, Seattle won, so the Royals are 3 games behind them for the final wild card spot. They have continued to bounce between 2 and 3 games behind Seattle for the past two weeks, time is running out for them to make a move. They still have a series against them at home, but you want to be closer than 2 or 3 games before starting that series.
The Royals start a massive week against the Angels on Tuesday, they get the Twins next weekend, they likely need a 5-1 week.
