Detroit Tigers offense runs dry in in 3-2 loss to the Royals
· Yahoo Sports
Detroit — Tough to win on a daily basis scoring just two runs.
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The Tigers got away with it on Friday night, but that output was insufficient Saturday.
Nick Loftin slammed a 94-mph fastball from James Waguespack in the top of the ninth inning, sending the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 win in front of 32,867 at Comerica Park.
The Royals tied the score in the seventh on a milestone blast by Salvador Perez, who set a new Royals' franchise record with 318 career home runs.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Royals called on a familiar face to close it out. Former Tiger Alex Lange inherited Riley Greene at first base (he'd singled off Daniel Lynch IV to start the inning) and gave up a one-out single to Zach McKinstry.
But with the tying run at third, Lange struck out Matt Vierling and got pinch-hitter Spencer Torkelson to pop out for his first save at Comerica Park since 2024.
It ended up being a single-source offense for the Tigers. And that source was rookie Hao-Yu Lee.
He came into play Saturday riding a nine-game hitting streak with a gaudy slash-line (.330/.357/.511) and an .868 OPS since June 1.
Make that a 10-game hitting streak.
Lee doubled in a run in the second and hit his sixth home run in the fourth.
Lee’s homer came on a change-up that veteran right-hander Michael Wachca left up and out of the strike zone. Didn’t matter. Lee got on top of it and clubbed it 402 feet over the Tigers’ bullpen in left field.
But Lee was the only Tigers hitter to leave a mark on Wacha, who allowed six hits in seven innings. The Tigers were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position against him.
For Tigers starter Casey Mize, it was a study in guile and guts. Coming off a shortened start in Anaheim and dealing with groin tightness between starts, it didn’t look like he had his best stuff.
His fastball velocity, normally steady between 93 and 94 mph, flickered between 89 and 92, occasionally hitting 95. Early on, he struggled to get his slider and splitter down in the zone. He managed just four misses on 45 swings and just three strikeouts.
But he impressively soldiered through it for six innings, allowing three singles and a run to a depleted Royals attack missing All-Star Bobby Witt, Jr., Maikel Garcia, Kyle Isbel and Jonathan India.
Mize, who will be a free agent at the end of the season and thus a potential trade candidate in the next couple of weeks, got 14 of his 18 outs on balls hit in the air. The only ground ball out was a sacrifice bunt by Nick Loftin that, after a wild pitch, set up a sacrifice fly by Michael Massey.
Mize lowered his ERA to 2.70.
But two pitches after he left the game, Perez launched a hanging slider from reliever Kyle Finnegan 401 feet deep into the seats in left field to tie the score.
This will be updated…
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers offense runs dry in in 3-2 loss to the Royals