*** Official Kansas City Royals @ Detroit Tigers Game Thread (6/19) ***

[alnorth]

12:08 pm

The AL Central ass-kicking Royals @ The last year's old news Detroit Tigers

Danny Duffy VS. Anibal Sanchez

Vegas Odds: DET -144, KC +134 (worse odds than yesterday? WTF?)

[007]

jinx

[KChiefs1]

ESPN.COM

Royals-Tigers Preview

Through all of the Detroit Tigers' recent pitching struggles, Anibal Sanchez has unfailingly provided manager Brad Ausmus with strong starts.

He'll need another to slow first-place Kansas City.

As good as Sanchez has been lately, he's been even better in his career against the Royals and will look to continue that trend Thursday as the Tigers try to avoid a four-game sweep.

"My goal wasn't to take three out of four when I left (for Detroit), my goal is to win every single game," Royals manager Ned Yost told MLB's official website.

Winner of 10 straight for the first time since stringing together 14 victories in 1994, Kansas City moved 1 1/2 games ahead of the Tigers with its eighth straight road win in Wednesday's 2-1 victory. A ninth in a row would give the Royals (39-32) their longest road winning streak since an 11-game run in 1977.

"Everything's going right for them right now," said Sanchez, who hasn't lost since April 21. "But at the end of the day, you need to give credit. They're playing good. They do the little things."

Former Tiger Omar Infante went 2 for 4 on Wednesday to extend his hitting streak to nine games and homered for the second time in this series, during which he has eight RBIs. Salvador Perez ran his hitting streak to 12 games while Billy Butler pushed his to eight, but after scoring 22 runs in the first two games in Detroit, the Royals fell back on other phases.

"We had to go back to our old way of doing things -- pitching and defense," Yost said.

The Tigers (36-32), who started the season with five straight wins over the Royals, are 6-14 at home since May 8 with an AL-worst 5.50 ERA and MLB-worst .297 opponent batting average. Overall, they've dropped 20 of 29.

"Really, for the most part, when we've struggled, our pitching has struggled," Ausmus said. "... Somehow, we've got to get that back on track."

After the Royals ripped Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer for 17 runs and 22 hits in the first two games of the series, now the Tigers' hottest pitcher tries to solve them.

Sanchez (3-2, 2.44 ERA) is 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA and .170 opponent batting average in his last seven starts. He beat Minnesota on Saturday, allowing three runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings of a 12-9 victory.

He's been even stronger against Kansas City with an 0.99 ERA in five career starts, winning three and losing 1-0 games in the other two. Sanchez has won both outings against the Royals in Detroit with one run allowed in 16 1/3 innings.

No one in Kansas City's regular lineup has homered off Sanchez while he's held Perez (0 for 9), Mike Moustakas (1 for 10), Infante (3 for 18) and Eric Hosmer (3 for 16) in check.

He'll be opposed by Danny Duffy, who has been just as solid lately, going 2-0 with a 1.45 ERA and .164 opponent average in three starts this month. Duffy (4-5, 2.83) struck out a career high-tying nine in seven scoreless innings to earn the victory in Saturday's 9-1 win over the Chicago White Sox.

"Danny's been throwing the ball outstanding the last couple outings," Hosmer said. "It's really fun to see him kind of develop into a starting pitcher."

The 25-year-old Duffy is 1-4 with a 3.89 ERA in seven starts against Detroit. He has limited Austin Jackson to 2 for 14 and Alex Avila to 1 for 8. Avila is in a 1-for-14 slump.

Kansas City outfielder Nori Aoki sat out Wednesday after leaving the previous day with left groin discomfort.

Detroit outfielder Torii Hunter remained out with a hamstring issue.

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

Kansas City Royals will look for the four-game sweep over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon.

Don’t look now, but the Royals have won 10 straight games and are a solid seven games above a .500 record. The Royals pitching has allowed three or less runs in seven of their last 12 games, while the offense has produced a combined 24 runs in the first three games of this series. Simply playing flawless baseball in the month of June, Omar Infante has hit safely in nine straight games and has eight RBI in this series alone. Danny Duffy gets the ball, and he’s 4-5 with a 2.83 ERA and has 42 strikeouts in 54 innings.

Duffy is 1-4 with a 3.89 ERA in seven career starts against the Tigers.

On the other side, the Tigers are 5-11 in the month of June and really look like a lost baseball team. The Tigers pitching staff now has an ERA of 4.22, which is 25th in the league, and they’ve allowed four or more runs in seven of their last 11 games. Offensively, Miguel Cabrera has gotten on base at least once in 12 straight games and Nick Castellanos has five extra base hits in his last eight games. Anibal Sanchez takes the hill, and he’s 3-2 with a 2.44 ERA and has 59 strikeouts in 62.2 innings.

Sanchez is 3-2 with a 0.99 ERA in five career starts against the Royals.

The Royals are 12-4 in Duffy's last 16 starts and 6-2 in Duffy's last 8 starts as a road underdog.

The Tigers are 3-7 in Sanchez's last 10 home starts and 2-5 in Sanchez's last 7 starts as a favorite.

The Royals are 6-15 in the last 21 meetings in Detroit.

Would you pick against the Royals at this point? Better yet, would you pick the Tigers to win? Yeah, me neither.

Read more at http://sportschatplace.com/

[KChiefs1]

SI.COM

Blame it on the Zubaz: Reeling Tigers are stuck in major slump
Posted June 18, 2014

AL Central, Detroit Tigers
By Cliff Corcoran

Drew Smyly and the Tigers' rotation has fallen apart over the last month. (Paul Sancya/AP)

Drew Smyly and the rest of Detroit’s starting rotation has fallen apart over the last month of play. (Paul Sancya/AP)

With their 11-4 loss to the Royals on Tuesday, the Tigers fell out of first place in the American League Central for the first time since July 2 of last year. They then lost a matinee to Kansas City on Wednesday to fall 1 1/2 games back. The Royals, who have won 10 straight and will go for a sweep in Detroit in another afternoon tilt on Thursday, deserve their share of credit for overtaking their division rivals. But a closer look reveals that the change atop the AL Central standings is more directly the result of the Tigers’ collapse.


A quick summary of how Detroit got here: On May 18, it went out and beat the Red Sox in Fenway Park, 6-2, behind a solid start from Anibal Sanchez (who came off the disabled list that very day). That win, the Tigers’ sixth in a row, improved their record to 27-12 (.692) and extended their lead in the AL Central to seven games over Kansas City. With the best winning percentage and second-best run-differential in the majors and Sanchez back in the fold, Detroit was an easy pick for the top spot in our Power Rankings the next morning.

Since then, the Tigers have gone 9-20, the worst record in baseball over that stretch.

“You don’t just lose it overnight,” Detroit’s rookie manager, Brad Ausmus, said after Tuesday night’s loss, but his starting rotation appears to have done exactly that. Sanchez has pitched well since returning, posting a 2.04 ERA in six starts including that Sunday night game in Boston and turning in five quality starts in five turns since. He has been the exception. Here’s how the Tigers’ other four starters have pitched this season before and after that May 18 game (Drew Smyly’s stats in games started only, not including Wednesday’s start):

ERA before 5/18 ERA since 5/18
Justin Verlander 3.15 7.88
Max Scherzer 1.83 6.86
Rick Porcello 2.91 6.00
Drew Smyly 3.29 4.84
Total 2.71 6.56

To that bunch you can add closer Joe Nathan, who, prior to May 18, converted 11 of 13 save opportunities without taking a loss, posting a 3.24 ERA. Since then, he has blown two of his four save chances, lost twice (one overlapping with a blown save) and posted a 13.50 ERA.

From May 19 through Tuesday night, opponents have had roughly a season’s worth of at-bats against Detroit’s rotation (691 ABs) and have collectively put up All-Star numbers, hitting .297/.356/.491 with 24 home runs, 105 RBIs and 52 doubles. The bullpen, meanwhile, has been hit to a .291/.377/.425 tune over the same span. As a team, the Tigers have allowed 6.1 runs per game over their 28-game swoon, and opponents have hit .295/.363/.470 against them.

That’s not to acquit the offense entirely. During the aforementioned period Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera have hit like MVP candidates, rookie third baseman Nick Castellanos has found his stroke (hitting .326/.376/.446 since May 19) and rookie shortstop Eugenio Suarez and platoon leftfielder J.D. Martinez have had small-sample success. But the lineup had produced just 4.1 runs per game entering Wednesday. Austin Jackson and Torii Hunter are the biggest concerns there, as both saw their bats go cold in early May and have yet to recover. But those struggles still pale in comparison with those of the pitching staff.

So why did the Tigers’ best pitchers all go bad at the same time? The timing is clearly a coincidence, but there are explanations in most cases. Porcello battled some tightness in his right side in his last start prior to May 18 and had his first start after that date pushed back (spot-starter Robbie Ray gave up seven runs in 3 1/3 innings in a 9-2 loss to the Rangers). Lingering issues there plus a little correction on his .266 opponents average on balls in play prior to May 18 could explain his problems. As for Smyly, who has seen the least dramatic change in his performance, pitched in relief all of last year, made just five starts prior to May 18, and has pitched well in his last two starts (6 IP, 1 ER in both) prior to Wednesday’s game, so it’s too soon to assert that there has been a meaningful change in the level of his performance.

As for Verlander, there are legitimate concerns about the erosion of his velocity and control that stretch back to last year, to which we can add a sharp decline in his strikeout rate this year. Taken in concert with his heavy workloads from 2009-12 and the very similar collapses of other workhorse aces in recent years, all of those factors are ominous. There’s a good chance that Verlander’s decline could be permanent — not because he can’t survive in the major leagues with a fastball that averages 94 mph rather than 96, but because that drop in velocity in combination with everything else suggests underlying physical issues.

That brings us to Tuesday night’s starter, Scherzer, who seemed to pick right up from his Cy Young performance to start the season but has now been hit hard in five of his last six starts. He is difficult to figure, particularly because the one exception in those last six starts was the first complete game and shutout of his career. Scherzer’s velocity is down a smidge, but not enough to be a concern (less than one mile per hour on the season per BrooksBaseball.net). His peripherals have remained strong during his recent struggles. He has struck out 38 men in 39 1/3 innings (a tick below his usual dominance, but still close to one per inning) and walked just nine over those six starts (4.22 K/BB over that stretch), and while his home runs are up, prior to Tuesday night, he hadn’t allowed two in a game since last August.

Scherzer’s self-diagnosis after Tuesday’s game was that he wasn’t making good pitches with two strikes.

I’m just not putting guys away. If I’m throwing offspeed out of the zone, it’s too far out of the zone. I’m throwing fastballs over the middle of the plate, not located. … The at-bat that really drove me crazy tonight was Salvador Perez. I got 0-2 on him. I’m in the count where I’m in control, I’m in the driver’s seat. I’m ready to collect an out. Instead, I throw four straight balls and walk him. … When I watch video, you see these things happen over and over. The 1-2 counts that I’m stressing to get into, and I’m not putting guys away. … I have to make a few adjustments and make my offspeed pitches better. At the same time, now that I know that, I have the mentality to go and fix it. It should be fun to do over the next four days, and I’m looking forward to my start against Cleveland.

There’s another theory, of course, and that’s that something happened on the night of the 18th that jinxed Detroit’s season. You see, that was the night that the entire team decided to dress in tiger-striped Zubaz for its flight to Cleveland. Verlander was among several players who tweeted photographs of himself in the tacky, retro duds along with the hashtag #dressforsuccess. The first thing that happened after the Tigers boarded their plane in those outfits was that their flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues. The Tigers didn’t get back to their hotel until 3:30 a.m. and didn’t get out of Boston until Monday afternoon for a 7 p.m. start in Cleveland.

The Tigers lost to the Indians that night and went 4-10 between the cancelled flight and their next off-day on June 2. They haven’t been the same team since. Coincidence? Probably, but if this doesn’t summarize the last month of Detroit baseball

[KChiefs1]

Freepicks.com

Royals at Tigers 6/19/14
Posted on 19 June 2014 by Adam

Kansas City Royals (39-32) vs. Detroit Tigers (36-32)

MLB: 1:08 PM EST June 19, 2014

Latest Odds: Detroit -149 Over/Under 8

The Kansas City Royals have never, conventionally, been thought of as late season players. It seems that, in 2014, they are trying to shake that image. The boys in blue are 1st in the AL Central and sporting a 39-32 record. With Comerica Park on the horizon and Miguel Cabrera looming with his big bat, the Royals will have to prove that they are a different team.

While Detroit has scuffled as of late, dropping to 36-32, they still possess one of the most potent hitting lineups in all of baseball. Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez simply cannot be matched by most other 1-2 combinations.


Detroit will look to their vaunted big bats to give Anibal Sanchez some support on the mound. Since returning from injury, the 30 year old Venezuela native is 3-2 with a 2.44 ERA. Not bad numbers for a team in need of pitching. Victor Martinez leads the team in hits with 86, homers with 17, and OBP with a .391 average.

For the Royals, much of their success has come from their balanced approach to the game. A middle of the pack rotation has been bolstered by a team that knows how to draw contact. Alcides Escobar is the top dog with a .295 average.




Recent Betting Trends:

KC are 8-0 in their last 8 road games.

KC are 13-3 in their last 16 overall.

DET are 5-16 in their last 21 games as a favorite.

Over is 12-4-1 in DET last 17 Thu. games.

Over is 9-3-1 in DET last 13 games as a favorite.




Free Betting Pick: Kansas City Royals +139

Some oddsmaker has fallen and hit their head, the Royals have won 10 in a row and are underdogs for 4th straight day, well take that. Royals pitching has been great and it continue as Duffy will outduel Sanchez for the Tigers on getaway day. Even better the Tigers bats have stunk up the joint for nearly a month while KC has been on fire.

Great price on the underdogs, final score prediction, Kansas City wins 5-3.

[SPchief]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Freepicks.com

Middle of the pack rotation?

[teedubya]

I made this tonight from all of the social buzz about the Royals right now.

[KCUnited]

"Working" from home this afternoon.

[BlackHelicopters]

In with a broom.

[Dunerdr]

Let's get it on!

[Dartgod]

1n for the w1n!

Originally Posted by teedubya

I made this tonight from all of the social buzz about the Royals right now.

That's pretty bad ass.

[Ceej]

Put four hours in and just left work early.

Now, to do "housework" and errands until noon.

[Shogun]

THIS ONE GOES TO ELEVEN

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by Shogun

THIS ONE GOES TO ELEVEN

Nice! FYP...

[ChiTown]

On it for number 11!

Headed to KC this weekend to catch the ENTIRE series with the M's. WOOT!