It took till April 24th, but I feel this can finally be said: Welcome back, Victor Martinez!
The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals tonight 7-5.
The Tigers scored first today in the 2nd inning after Jhonny Peralta hit a single, Alex Avila drew a walk, then Omar Infante hit a single to drive in Peralta and Detroit led 1-0.
The Royals took a 4-1 lead after the top of the 3rd, but the Tigers closed the gap in the bottom of the inning after a double by Miguel Cabrera, walk to Prince Fielder, then Victor Martinez hit a double to drive in Cabrera. With runners on 2nd and 3rd, Jhonny Peralta hit a single to score Fielder, but Martinez was sent home for some reason and may have been out by 20 feet, so instead of being tagged, he just headed to the dugout; it was now a 4-3 Royals lead.
The Tigers responded in the 4th inning with a walk from Alex Avila and single by Omar Infante, then Austin Jackson hit into a fielder's choice to keep runners on 1st and 2nd. Torii Hunter came up next and reached base on a fielding error which allowed Infante to score and Jackson to advance to 3rd base. Miguel Cabrera was the next batter and hit a sacrifice fly to score Jackson. After a Prince Fielder walk, Victor Martinez hit a single to drive in Hunter. After Andy Dirks drew a walk a walk to load the bases, Jhonny Peralta drew a walk himself to score Fielder and the Tigers had a 7-4 lead.
The Royals scored a run in the 5th inning and ended Max Scherzer's day. He wasn't too good today, struggling in the 3rd and 5th innings, but pitched 5 innings, giving up 5 runs on 7 hits, walking 3 and striking out 6 batters; he won his 2nd game of the season.
Al Alburquerque came in for relief and pitched a scoreless 6th inning. Alburquerque came back out for the 7th inning and got the first 2 outs, but walked the next two batters and was pulled. Joaquin Benoit came in and got the last out of the inning. Benoit came back out and pitched a scoreless 8th inning.
Tonight's closer? The return of Jose Valverde. He pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning to earn his 1st save of the season.
The Tigers finish up their series with the Royals tomorrow as Justin Verlander (2-2 2.13 ERA) takes on James Shields (1-2 3.00 ERA).
Picture credit: zimbio.com
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