Timely offense lifts Kansas City Royals to victory over the Tigers in Detroit

The Kansas City Royals offense hardly exploded, but it certainly delivered in key instances to pave the way for a series-opening victory in the Motor City on Friday night.

The Royals collected just one hit with runners in scoring position and they didn’t hit a home run, but they did smoke a pair of triples as well as come through with a pair of sacrifice flies in earning a 3-1 win over the Detroit Tigers in front of an announced 24,877 at Comerica Park.

The victory clinched the season series between the teams for the Royals.

Royals designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn went 2 for 2 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI. He drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning.

Whit Merrifield drove in a pair of runs for the Royals (70-83). Rookie outfielder Kyle Isbel went 2 for 3 with a run scored, a double and a triple. Adalberto Mondesi tripled and scored.

Isbel started in center field in place of Michael A. Taylor, who went on the bereavement list prior to Friday’s game. The Royals recalled outfielder Edward Olivares to fill the open roster spot.

The first word that came to mind for O’Hearn when asked to describe the offensive performance was “relentless.”

“That’s a great cliche word, but it’s true,” O’Hearn said. “These guys battled every at-bat, every pitch until the game is over, and it’s pretty evident. A lot of guys had good nights and nothing to show for it tonight, a lot of line drives right at guys, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. It was fun to watch Izzy, two big, huge hits. Whit, there’s no guy I’d rather have up with a man on third base and less than two outs. Tonight was just a collective team effort.”

Royals starting pitcher Carlos Hernández pitched five scoreless innings in a no-decision. He allowed two hits and walked three.

The Royals scored a third-inning run on Merrifield’s sacrifice fly to right field. O’Hearn, who had singled to start the inning, scored on the play. That one-run lead held up until the sixth inning.

The Tigers tied the score in the sixth inning after reliever Domingo Tapia gave up a leadoff walk and an infield single on a ball hit by the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera to third base, where Mondesi failed to backhand it cleanly.

With two outs and runners on the corners, Eric Haase hit a game-tying RBI single to right field against Tapia.

The Royals regained the lead in the top of the seventh. Mondesi ripped a stand-up one-out triple into the right-center field gap, and O’Hearn swatted a 3-2 fastball from Tigers reliever Alex Lange, a graduate of Lee’s Summit West High School, into left field for an RBI single.

“Put it in play,” O’Hearn said of his approach. “A big key for me is to stay, mentally, to left-center. If I start pulling off or trying to hit the ball to right field, nothing good happens. I know that. I was trying to stay to the left side, up the middle. Lange has got really good stuff. He’s got a really good changeup, the slider, and obviously he throws hard. “

O’Hearn said he’d actually hoped to hit the ball in the air, but hitting the ball on the ground worked out. His single gave the Royals a 2-1 lead.

A base-running mistake by the Tigers’ Niko Goodrum helped the Royals maintain that lead in the bottom half of the inning. Goodrum got thrown out at third base trying to stretch a leadoff double off of Royals reliever Jake Brentz into a triple.

Right fielder Hunter Dozier got to the ball quickly as it caromed off the wall in foul territory along the right-field line. Dozier got it to second baseman Merrifield quickly who relayed to Mondesi at third for a quick tag.

“That’s a huge momentum shift with nobody out,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “You go from a man on second and nobody out to all of a sudden bases empty and one out. That’s a big momentum swing and a real nice relay by Whit.”

The next batter, Victory Reyes, hit what should have been an RBI double.

Brentz struck out pinch-hitter Daz Cameron looking, and then reliever Josh Staumont came on and struck out Jonathan Schoop swinging to end the inning and strand Reyes on second.

The Royals tacked on an insurance run in the eighth inning after Isbel lined a leadoff triple to right-center field and scored on Merrifield’s second sacrifice fly of the night.

“Guys making things happen two innings in a row with good speed guys leading off, Mondi with one out, getting a triple,” Matheny said. “We celebrated our guys before the game about how good of a job they’ve done getting runners over and getting them in. It’s a significant jump from what the team has been able to do the last several years.

“A day like today, Whit coming through twice with the sac, then O’Hearn putting up a really good at-bat and fighting deep in the count and being able to get a run in. We’ve been pretty consistent with that all year, when we get that stuff done and we take advantage of opportunities to move guys over and get them in, we play just a much better style of and the results have been there.”

Royals right-hander Scott Barlow retired the side in order in the ninth in recording his 15th save.

The teams continue their series on Saturday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 5:10 p.m. CT. The pitching matchup will feature Royals rookie right-hander Jonathan Heasley (0-1, 9.00 ERA) against Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal (8-12, 4.25).

Celebrating in Kansas

The Royals’ Double-A affiliate Northwest Arkansas Naturals beat the Wichita Wind Surge 6-2 at Riverfront Stadium on Friday night in Wichita to sweep the best-of-five Double-A Central Championship Series.

Outfielder Brewer Hicklen hit a fourth-inning grand slam to break a tie, and designated hitter Freddy Fermin had two hits. Seven of players in the starting lineup had at least one hit in the win.

Naturals pitchers Drew Parrish (four innings, two runs), Nolan Watson (four scoreless innings) and Jose Cuas (one scoreless inning) combined to hold the Wind Surge to two runs on seven hits and two walks.