Tigers hang on to defeat Royals 3-1 on Torkelson's home run

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Apr 19, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT – Sometimes it’s flat-out eerie the way manager AJ Hinch can see things before they happen.

He was asked before the Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals 3-1 Saturday about putting Kerry Carpenter in the leadoff spot.

“He’s the biggest threat and it’s a really early decision for them with three lefties in their pen,” Hinch said. “I don’t know if all three are available but with (right-handed hitting) Gleyber Torres off, I wanted to separate Carp and (left-handed hitting) Riley Greene.”

Hinch talked about the 19th at-bat of the game being a big decision point, potentially, for Royals manager Matt Quatraro. That would be Carpenter’s third time through the order and Hinch was dead on.

The 19th at-bat came in the fifth inning of a scoreless game. With two outs and runner on, Quatraro stuck with his veteran right-hander Seth Lugo and Carpenter kept the inning alive with a single.

That set the table for the Tigers’ hottest hitter.

Spencer Torkelson fought out of an 0-2 hole and slugged a three-run home run to left field, the kill shot in the Tigers’ third straight win over the Royals.

It was Torkelson’s seventh homer and it upped his team-leading RBI total to 21. He’s the first Tiger to get to seven homers in 21 games since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.

Lugo got ahead with two slurves and tried to put Torkelson away with another with count 1-2. It was perfectly located down and in and somehow Torkelson fought it off.

The 2-2 splitter was in the middle of the plate and Torkelson scalded it. The ball left his bat at 106 mph.

It was all the support needed. Casey Mize put on the superman cape for this one.

With the bullpen running on fumes, the Tigers needed Mize to log some innings Saturday and he obliged against a team that has historically beat him around a bit.

The Royals averaged over five runs a game against him in 10 previous starts, but this is a very different version of Mize.

He efficiently bulldogged his way through seven innings, spotting four-seamers and sinkers to open up the plate for a deft mix of traditional sliders, sweepy sliders and his splitter.

He was pounding the strike zone, 20 first-pitch strikes in 27 hitters, and getting early outs, which kept his pitch-count low. He finished his seven innings in 88 pitches.

He’d allowed just three, well-spaced singles before catcher Freddy Fermin ambushed a first-pitch sinker with two outs in the seventh and lined it over the wall in left-center.

Brenan Hanifee and Will Vest locked down the eighth and ninth.

The Tigers at 13-8 are off to their best start since 2015. They’ve taken four of their last five series and have won six in a row against the Royals since last season. They are also 8-1 at Comerica to start the season, the best since 1993.

And bonus: They have reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal going in the series finale Sunday.

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