The Royals, in Hillman's debut as manager, defeated the Detroit Tigers in 11 innings, 5-4, in the season opener on Monday as a record crowd of 44,934 watched at Comerica Park.
Tony Pena Jr.'s looping two-out single in the 11th scored John Buck to break a 4-4 tie against Tigers reliever Denny Bautista. That came after center fielder Brandon Inge threw out Mark Teahen at the plate as he tried to score from second on Buck's single.
Carlos Guillen's 400-foot home run led off the Tigers' eighth inning against reliever Brett Tomko, forging a 4-4 tie.
The heavily hyped, multi-muscled Tigers lineup banged away at Royals starter Gil Meche. In his six innings, they had eight hits, including three doubles and a home run off the him, but they scored just three runs.
The homer came from Miguel Cabrera, making his Detroit debut. The former Florida Marlins slugger hoisted a 2-1 pitch into the left-field stands to lead off the Tigers' fifth, making it 3-0.
It could have been worse. Jose Guillen, the Royals' new right fielder, showed his strong arm by gunning down Magglio Ordonez at the plate to end the third inning. The Tigers had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth but got just one run, on Meche's walk to Gary Sheffield.
Hillman must have been having flashbacks to his last game in Japan, when his Nippon Ham Fighters lost in a perfect game thrown by the Chinuchi Dragons in the Japan Series.
In Hillman's first game managing the Royals, his new charges went three innings against Justin Verlander without a hit. Finally, with two outs in the fourth, Billy Butler stroked a single to left field -- the Royals' first hit of the season.
They didn't score until the sixth when, after Mark Grudzielanek lined a single to right, Alex Gordon pulled a 3-1 pitch into the right-fields seats for a two-run homer.
Verlander was pulled in the seventh after Teahen walked and Ross Gload singled. Reliever Jason Grilli surrendered a score-tying single to Buck. Pena was unable to bunt and bounced into a force out.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland switched to left-hander Bobby Seay, who got Joey Gathright, in the game for injured David DeJesus, to line out.
Again Leyland changed relievers, to righty Aquilino Lopez, and Grudzielanek's liner to right scored Gload for a 4-3 lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment