Between web gem & injury scare, Kansas City Royals bullpen had full day vs. the Tigers

The Kansas City Royals bullpen was one of few bright spots in a 3-0 series-finale loss to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium.

After starter Zack Greinke gave up two runs in four innings in his return from the 15-day injured list, the Royals (28-70) combined to allow just two hits, one run and two walks while striking out four across the final five innings.

“The results were good: one run in five innings,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “(We’ll) take our chances with that any day of the week.”

Lefty Austin Cox replaced Greinke in the fifth and surrendered the Tigers’ (44-52) only run against the bullpen. He gave up a one-out triple to Zach McKinstry and walked Riley Greene before Spencer Torkelson’s sacrifice fly to left scored McKinstry.

Cox got out of the inning with a Kerry Carpenter groundout and gave way to righty Jonathan Heasley, who recorded a scoreless sixth on just seven pitches. He induced a lineout by Javier Baez and groundouts by Nick Maton and Akil Baddoo.

“Good breaking balls, (velocity) looked like it ticked back up a hair from (his outing Tuesday),” Quatraro said of Heasley. “But (he was) in the zone like we expect from him. He always throws strikes. It’s just a matter of landing that breaking ball in good spots, and it was good.”

Righty Jose Cuas took the seventh and worked around a leadoff single by Andy Ibáñez and one-out walk to McKinstry. He struck out Eric Haase and Greene and forced Torkelson to ground out to third.

Righty Nick Wittgren pitched the final two frames, which included strikeouts of Haase and Baddoo and a highlight-reel play.

With one out in the ninth, Ibáñez smacked an 82 mile-per-hour slider back to the mound, hitting Wittgren’s hand and dislodging his glove.

Wittgren recovered, stepped behind the mound and barehanded the ball, flinging an off-balance throw to first, where Nick Pratto’s stretch was just enough to get the out. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch challenged but the call on the field was upheld.

Quatraro and Royals trainer Kyle Turner checked on Wittgren after the play but he was fine and continued.

“We’re really fortunate that (it) got mostly glove and just a little bit of a fat pad there on your thumb,” Quatraro said. “Tremendous play to recover first of all, make an accurate throw and for Nick to stay on the bag — all of that was positive.”

Across the series, which the Tigers ultimately took 3-1, Royals relievers excluding closer Scott Barlow pitched 14 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits, five runs and seven walks while striking out 13.

Their continued improvement and reliability will be all the more important if Barlow is indeed shipped to a contender before the Aug. 1 trade deadline, as trade rumors continue to surround the roster.