Detroit Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd retired nine Kansas City Royals in a row Tuesday before a two-out walk in the sixth inning.
He walked the next batter before manager Ron Gardenhire removed him from the game. Boyd had thrown 105 pitches.
And when reliever Jose Cisnero got Edward Olivares to ground into a force-out, Boyd — sitting in the dugout — officially pitched a scoreless outing for the first time since May 28, 2019.
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It’s been 476 days.
The offense showed up with 14 hits, but it was Boyd who set the tone for the Tigers (21-26) in a 6-0 victory over the Royals at Comerica Park. He only allowed two hits — something he hasn’t done since Aug. 18, 2019.
Detroit snapped a three-game losing skid and, as of Tuesday night, trails the Cleveland Indians by five games for the AL’s eighth and final spot in the expanded 16-team postseason.
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The Tigers wrap up a two-game slate with the Royals on Wednesday with left-hander Tarik Skubal before hosting the Indians for four starting Thursday.
Boyd improves
Of Boyd’s 105 pitches, he used 55% fastballs, 25% changeups, 10% sliders and 10% curveballs. He got 11 swinging strikes — five with his changeup — and 14 called strikes.
He was much improved from his last start Sept. 9 against the Milwaukee Brewers; he was throttled for seven runs in the Tigers’ 19-0 loss. This time, he left a zero on the board through 5⅔ innings, conceding two hits and four walks. He struck out five batters.
Three relievers — Jose Cisnero, Buck Farmer and Bryan Garcia — carried the Tigers the rest of the way.
Cabrera powers up, helps chase Junis
For the first time since Sept. 2, Miguel Cabrera recorded an extra-base hit.
And for the first time since Aug. 29, he crushed a home run.
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In the bottom of the third, Cabrera (2-for-2 with three walks) drove a 90.4 mph fastball from Royals starter Jakob Junis the opposite way into the right-field seats. It was his sixth homer of the season and moved him to 483 in his career, 10 long balls away from tying Fred McGriff and Lou Gehrig for 28th in MLB history.
More importantly, he gave Boyd a four-run lead. Jeimer Candelario and Niko Goodrum followed up with singles to chase Junis.
Junis made it through 2⅓ innings and allowed five earned runs, which is a surprise considering the 27-year-old only lost one game in seven starts at Comerica Park before Tuesda.
Leave ’em loaded
The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs, thanks to walks from Cabrera and Goodrum, plus Candelario’s second single of the game.
But reliever Tyler Zuber struck out the next three batters: Bonifacio, Austin Romine and Isaac Paredes.
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Up the middle
The Royals were threatening in the first inning when Salvador Perez poked a grounder to shortstop Willi Castro, who started at that position Tuesday despite Goodrum’s return from the 10-day injured list.
Without thinking twice, Castro fired the baseball to Romine. Whit Merrifield, who reached with a leadoff double and stole third base,didn’t slide on his attempt to score, giving Romine an easy tag to keep the Royals off the board.
Goodrum played second base, but the Tigers were more concerned about his offensive production after a right oblique strain in Toledo. In 31 games entering Tuesday, he had a .186 batting average.
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He gave the ballclub a positive sign with a two-out RBI single to start the scoring. Goodrum was followed by Bonifacio, who drove in two runs for a 3-0 lead with another single.
Goodrum finished 2-for-4 with one RBI and one walk. Castro tossed in a sixth-inning homer, his fourth of the year, to put the Tigers ahead by six runs. He ended with three hits.
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Evan Petzold is a sports reporting intern at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.