Royals Comeback Falls Short

Shane Greene has been part of almost every victory this season for the Detroit Tigers.

The right-hander allowed a home run in the ninth inning against Kansas City on Friday night, but still closed out the win.

Greene finished Detroit’s 4-3 victory over the Royals for his American League-leading 13th save in 13 chances. The Tigers only have 14 wins, so Greene is clearly a big reason Detroit is just a game under .500 in what was supposed to be another rebuilding year.

Greene struck out two in the ninth, but he also allowed a solo homer to Jorge Soler and a two-out double to pinch-hitter Ryan O’Hearn. He finally retired Martin Maldonado on a popup to end it.

Matthew Boyd struck out nine in another solid outing, and the Tigers scored three runs in the first inning. It was the sixth straight quality start for Boyd, who allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings. He walked one.

Joe Jimenez struck out two in a perfect eighth for Detroit.

Jorge Lopez (0-3) settled down nicely after a tough start. He allowed four runs and five hits in seven innings.

Miguel Cabrera hit an RBI single in the first, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead before Lopez had gotten an out. Another run came home when Ronny Rodriguez grounded into a force play, and Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch, sliding in safely on a close play at the plate.

Rodriguez added an RBI double in the third, and Boyd kept the Royals off the scoreboard until the fourth, when Soler hit a sacrifice fly and Kelvin Gutierrez followed with a run-scoring triple.

Boyd (3-2) worked out of that jam with back-to-back strikeouts, and the Tigers held on from there to improve to 4-0 on the season against Kansas City.