Kansas City @ Detroit preview
Comerica Park
Last Meeting ( Sep 21, 2010 ) Kansas City 9, Detroit 6
The Detroit Tigers were the team heading into this series that garnered all the talk about their hot offense, but the Kansas City Royals are showing they can swing it a bit too as the teams head into Wednesday’s Game 3.
The Royals (62-88) smacked 15 hits and put up four runs in the fifth inning to drop Detroit 9-6 on Tuesday night. Kansas City had 16 hits in Monday’s 7-5 loss and now owns a .331 team batting average over its last 10 games – a stretch in which it has put 60 runs on the board.
The club is averaging 4.19 runs per game this season, good for 21st in the bigs.
The Royals are getting hits from pretty much every spot in the lineup, but they have really been setting the table well for the middle of the order. The first three hitters in Kansas City’s lineup – Jarrod Dyson, Aviles and Billy Butler – all had three hits on Tuesday and accounted for five of the club’s RBIs.
Three of those RBIs came from the bat of Aviles, who is now hitting 18-for-36 with 10 RBIs in his last eight games.
Kyle Davies (8-10, 5.08 ERA) will take the mound today for the Royals. Davies suffered only his second September loss since 2008 in his last start, giving up five runs over five innings while walking three against Cleveland.
The 6-foot-1 right-hander had trouble with his control, hitting the strike zone with only 52 of his 92 pitches. Before the loss, Davies had allowed only four runs through three starts spanning 20 1/3 innings. He is 3-7 lifetime against the Tigers with a 5.64 ERA and is 2-1 against them with a 5.71 ERA this season.
Max Scherzer (11-10, 3.54 ERA) answers the call for the Tigers (76-75). Scherzer is enjoying a nice run over the last two months, going 5-3 with a 2.13 ERA over his last 12 starts. He picked up his first win in four starts on Friday against the Chicago White Sox.
A pair of solo homers were the only two hits Scherzer allowed over eight innings while striking out 11. He hasn’t allowed more than four runs in an outing since June 4, but is 0-2 with a 3.94 ERA in three starts against Kansas City this season.
Miguel Cabrera hit his 35th home run of the season for the Tigers on Tuesday. He leads the bigs with 120 RBIs and is hitting .326 on the year.