Royals score two late runs and beat Tigers, 3-1

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Aug 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The thing about trying to beat the Royals, if you don’t score early, you might not score much at all. When they can get to the back end of their bullpen with a chance to win, they generally do.

The Tigers lived that reality Saturday night. Failing to score against John Schreiber, Angel Zerpa, Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estevez. It's like waiting around to die.

Which happened in the bottom of the eighth inning. Bobby Witt Jr. broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run homer to center field off lefty Tyler Holton, sending the Royals to a 3-1 win and squaring the series at a game each and cutting the Tigers' lead in the Central Division to 8.5 games.

The home run ball has been an issue for Holton. The 427-foot shot by Witt — on an 0-1 fastball in the middle of the plate — was the 14th dinger he’s allowed in 57 games this season. He gave up 16 in 125 games the last two seasons combined.

The Tigers, though, will rue some of the misfortune and missed chances they endured earlier in the game.

It was an encouraging outing by Tigers starter Jack Flaherty.

Last Sunday at Comerica Park, the Royals banged out seven straight hits against him with two outs in a six-run third inning.

They faced a different cat Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.

Flaherty, attacking effectively early in counts with well-placed 93-95-mph four-seam fastballs, was in trouble only in the first inning and the only smudge on his ledger was a fourth-inning solo homer by Maikel Garcia.

He allowed just four hits with two walks in 5 2/3 innings with four strikeouts.

The velocity and spin rates were up on his primary pitches, the fastball, slider and knuckle-curve and he mixed in nine change-ups, eight against the five left-handed hitters in the Royals lineup.

He induced seven ground-ball outs, including a clutch 6-4-3 double-play from Garcia to extract himself out of a 23-pitch first inning.

It was a 1-1 game when he departed.

Right-hander Tommy Kahnle, continuing his resurgence, kept the game at 1-1 through the seventh, striking out three in 1 1/3 innings. It was his fourth straight scoreless outing.

The Tigers were stinging baseballs off Royals’ right-hander Stephen Kolek without reward. Acquired from the Padres in the Freddy Fermin trade and making what was believed to be a spot start, Kolek allowed only a run in his six innings.

But the Tigers hit 10 balls with exit velocities in excess of 97 mph and seven at 100 mph or harder.

He got just five swings-and-misses on 35 swings.

The lone run came on a two-out single by Gleyber Torres in the third inning.

The Tigers missed an opportunity to take the lead in the top of the seventh. Against Schreiber, Wenceel Perez singled with one out and hustled to third on Dillon Dingler’s third single of the game.

Not only did Perez get to third, Dingler scampered to second on the throw.

Schreiber, though, got Trey Sweeney on a shallow fly ball to right.

With two outs, Tigers manager AJ Hinch sent up lefty-swinging Zach McKinstry to pinch hit for Andy Ibanez. Royals manager Matt Quatraro countered with lefty Zerpa.

McKinstry, who has a .900 OPS against lefties this season, grounded out to second base to end the threat.

The Tigers, who send ace Tarik Skubal out for the rubber match Sunday, didn’t get a baserunner against Erceg. Riley Greene doubled with one out against Estevez in the ninth but got no further than third base.