Farnsworth Implodes
Royals blow early lead, lose in 9th
KANSAS CITY, MO -- The former #1 overall pick,
Luke Hochevar, showed signs of brilliance through the first 5 innings but just ran out of gas in the 6th as his pitch count approached the upper 90s. Manager
Trey Hillman was quoted as saying "I should have taken him out after that leadoff triple, that's on me, but I wanted to see what the kid had and if he could work out of a jam. He limited the damage but just didn't have anything left in the tank."
The scoring began in the bottom half of the 2nd when
Jose Guillen deposited a hanging Rick Porcello curveball into the let field bullpen for a 1-0 lead. Porcello was fairly inconsistent on this day as his strike to ball ratio was lower than 2:1. In the following frame
Chris Getz got a ball into the gap in right center for a stand up triple. He was brought home on a
David DeJesus single up the middle. After that, the Royals offense would go stagnant and they were not able to get anything going the rest of the game. The Tigers would strike for 2 runs to tie the game in the 6th. After a leadoff triple by rookie Austin Jackson and two straight infield pop ups, an intentional walk was issued to slugger Miguel Cabrera. Hochevar was in good shape to get out of the jam but gave up two straight singles to Brennan Boesch and Ramon Santiago before getting that elusive third out. With some good bullpen work by
Robinson Tejeda, the contest was still tied going into the 9th when
Kyle Farnsworth came on. After striking out Boesch, Farnsworth hit Santiago on an 0-2 count. Carlos Guillen came on to pinch hit and swiftly spanked a ball into the gap for an RBI triple. Brandon Inge then put the icing on the cake by crushing a Farnsworth fastball over the left field bullpen to make it 5-2 in favor of Detroit. The Royals went down quietly in the bottom half as closer Jose Valverde picked up the save. Detroit's bullpen struck out 4 of the final 6 Royals' hitters.
Brian Bannister will make his season debut tomorrow against newly acquired Tiger, Max Scherzer. The Royals look to take the rubber match in the series finale before hosting the Boston Red Sox for 3 games.
| Tigers at Royals - Kauffman Stadium |
| Apr 7, 2010 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Detroit (1-1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 0 |
| Kansas City (1-1) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| W: Phil Coke L: Kyle Farnsworth S: Jose Valverde |
| Scoring Summary |
| SCORING DETAILS | DET | KAN |
 | 2nd | Guillen homered to left (397 feet) | 0 | 1 |
| 3rd | Dejesus single up the middle, Getz scores | 0 | 2 |
 | 6th | Boesch singles to left, Jackson scores | 1 | 2 |
| 6th | Santiago singles up middle, Cabrera scores | 2 | 2 |
| 9th | C. Guillen triples to right center, Santiago scores | 3 | 2 |
| 9th | Inge homers to left (403 feet), Guillen scores | 5 | 2 |
| Detroit Tigers |
| HITTERS | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Jackson, CF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .286 |
| Damon, LF | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .222 |
| Ordonez, RF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Cabrera, 1B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .500 |
| Boesch, DH | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .250 |
| Santiago, 2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .167 |
| Diaz, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .143 |
| A-Guillen, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Laird, C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Inge, 3B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .143 |
| Everett, SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .143 |
| TOTALS | 35 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 5 | |
BATTING
3B: C. Guillen (1), A. Jackson (1)
HR: B. Inge (1)
RBI: R. Santiago (1), C. Guillen (1), B. Inge 2 (2), B. Boesch (1)
HBP: R. Santiago
GIDP: R. Santiago |
| Detroit Tigers |
| PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| R. Porcello | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2.57 |
| P. Coke (W, 1-0) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 |
| J. Valverde (S, 1) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 |
| TOTALS | 9.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
PITCHING
WP: R. Porcello (1) |
| Kansas City Royals |
| HITTERS | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | AVG |
| DeJesus, RF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .250 |
| Podsednik, LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .125 |
| Butler, 1B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .125 |
| Ankiel, CF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .286 |
| Guillen, DH | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .286 |
| Bloomquist, 3B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 |
| Betancourt, SS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .167 |
| Kendall, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .500 |
| Getz, 2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 |
| TOTALS | 32 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
BATTING
3B: C. Getz (1)
HR: J. Guillen (1)
RBI: D. DeJesus (1), J. Guillen (2) |
BASERUNNING
SB: D. DeJesus (1), Y. Betancourt (1) |
| Kansas City Royals |
| PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| L. Hochevar | 6.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3.00 |
| R. Tejeda | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| K. Farnsworth (L, 0-1) | 1.0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 27.00 |
| TOTALS | 9.0 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | |