Well, for two finesse/control pitchers, sometimes they just don’t have it. When they don’t have it, the hits come in bunches.

Tonight, neither starting pitcher had it. Both Seth Lugo and Casey Mize were chased early from the game as the scoring started early and often. A shame because it was a beautiful Friday night for baseball in front of a big crowd for Big Slick. Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Heidi Gardner, and the crew were in attendance. At least for awhile.

The scoring began almost immediately in the top of the first. After getting the first two hitters out, Lugo gave up a single and then faced Riley Greene. Lugo left a meaty 92mph fastball just slightly in and slightly high against the lefty. Greene must have been sitting fastball because he turned and got out in front of the pitch and blasted it beyond the right field bullpen. Just a monster shot to make it 2-0 Tigers in the first.

Not to be outdone, the Royals finally hit a home run in the bottom of the frame. The man Bobby Witt Jr got a hanging slider-looking pitch from Mize and had an easy punish to put that ball in the fountains beyond left-center field to make it 2-1.

Unfortunately, as I said, Lugo just didn’t have it today. He gave up another two-run homer in the second inning to someone named Dillon Dingler. It was just a meaty fastball straight down the middle. Very quickly, 4-1 Tigers.

The Royals battled back in the third inning. With the bases loaded and under two outs, which means not necessarily running on contact, Drew Waters popped a grounder up the middle that managed to score the two biggest dudes, Vinnie Pasquantino from third and SALVADOR PÉREZ FROM SECOND. The man was motoring in front of Maikel Garcia. I don’t think I have seen him run that fast all year. That brought the Royals to within one again, 4-3.

Ultimately both starting pitchers just made too many mistakes. Walks, hits, homers. It’s what happens sometimes to control artists when they don’t have it. While there wasn’t any scoring, both starters were chased in the fourth inning after a number of hits and walks.

Unfortunately, only one bullpen was up to the challenge.

The hit parade continued against the Royals. Daniel Lynch relieved Lugo and gave up two baserunners before getting two outs. Jonathan Bowlan came in and gave up a single to allow another Tigers run, making it 5-3.

The Royals managed to cut the deficit to just one again in the seventh inning. Garcia led off with a triple down the left field line, so with no outs you’d hope it would be just a matter of time before Garcia scored. Garcia stayed put on a short fly ball to right field off the bat of Mark Canha, so he was primed to tag and streak for home when it was caught. He scored fairly easily to make it 5-4.

But in the eighth inning, the Tigers put some distance between themselves and the Royals against Andrew Hoffmann, making his big league debut. Hoffmann left a sort of changeup (88mph? not a lot of movement that I could tell? not sure) over the plate that Spencer Torkelson was all-too-happy to deposit into the fountains. Welcome to the big leagues I guess. Wenceel Pérez followed with a double and scored on another Dingler hit to make it 7-4. Hoffmann managed to get two more outs via strikeout to end the inning, but I’m sure that’s an inning the guy would like to forget.

He did his very best the next inning to make that happen. The hard changeup started diving a little bit more and Hoffmann was able to get two more strikeouts. He also got Torkelson, the guy who hit a homer off him the previous inning, to hit a weak fly ball into right field for the third out. Nerves, maybe. He looked much better and more like the guy who was striking out a third of hitters in AAA.

The Royals mounted a small challenge in the ninth. With two outs, Garcia managed a single and a “stolen” base (the Tigers did not care). On another ground ball up the middle, Waters managed to bring Garcia in to score to make it 7-5. But that was it. Mark Canha weakly grounded out to end the game. I don’t think Paul Rudd will have a party at his mom’s house after this one.

The Royals are now 30-28 and remain in fourth in the AL Central. The Tigers move to 38-20 and remain in first. The Royals scattered 12 hits and five walks across the game but just could not manage to bring enough of them in to score as they failed miserably with runners in scoring position. Prior to tonight’s game, the Royals had a 62 wRC+ (!!!!) with runners in scoring position, hitting .225/.284/.318. Their raw line there is worse than the Rockies. The Rockies! A team that is 9-48! Blargh.

Tarik Skubal will face Michael Wacha in tomorrow’s game at 3:10pm US Central.