Jarrod Dyson's Botched Steal spoils Royals Rally

Jarrod Dyson

. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Royals dropped their 2nd straight game to the Tigers, falling 4-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit on Tuesday night. Jarrod Dyson got picked off by closer Joe Nathan while attempting a double steal with fellow pinch runner Terrance Gore that killed a Royals 9th inning rally.

Max Scherzer held the Royals to 1 run over 6.2 innings, despite allowing 7 hits and 4 walks. Scherzer earned his 16th win of the season (16-5) in a critical showdown with the Royals.

The loss drops Kansas City to 15 games over .500 at 79-64. Detroit has now caught Kansas City for a tie atop the A.L. Central. Kansas City is also locked in a 3-way logjam with Detroit and Seattle for the 2nd A.L. wild card. The Royals will try to avoid a damaging sweep on Wednesday.

On the Mound

Jason Vargas wobbled through 5.1 innings, giving up 6 hits (including 2 home runs), 3 walks, and 4 runs with 6 strikeouts. Vargas left the game in the 6th trailing 4-1.

Aaron Crow entered in the 6th and provided 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Kelvin Herrera pitched the 8th and ran his consecutive scoreless innings to 29.1 despite allowing 2 hits. Alcides Escobar made a nice play to keep a hard-hit grounder on the infield to prevent a run from scoring with 2 outs.

At the Plate

The Royals scored their first run in the 5th on Omar Infante‘s single with 2 men on base. That set up a 1st and 3rd situation for Alex Gordon with one out. Gordon came close to smashing a home run to right, but the ball sailed just wide of the foul pole. Tiger starter Max Scherzer walked Gordon, but then got Salvador Perez on a liner to 3rd and struck out Hosmer.

Kansas City scored their 2nd run on a grounder by Lorenzo Cain with Josh Willingham on 3rd and Mike Moustakas on 2nd after hitting a double. Alcides Escobar failed to pick up the runner by grounding to 3rd.

Omar Infante went 3 for 5 with 3 singles and 1 RBI.

Mike Moustakas went 2 for 4 with a single and double.

Overall, the Royals only managed 1 extra base knock out of 10 hits. Kansas City only plated 2 runs despite 10 hits and 5 walks in a horrible offensive performance.

This and That

The game was nationally televised by ESPN.

Jarrod Dyson made a huge base running mistake in the 9th by getting picked off 2nd with men on 1st and 2nd and 1 out. The pickoff killed the Royals momentum after KC opened the inning with 2 infield singles.

Dyson came into the game as a pinch runner for Nori Aoki and was attempting a double steal with fellow pinch runner Terrance Gore.

The loss drops Kansas City to 4-11 against the Tigers this season.

KC Kingdom Player of the Game

Aaron Crow gets our nod for providing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief that gave the Royals a chance to come back. It wasn’t his fault that the offense failed to score despite 15 baserunners.

Jarrod Dyson’s Botched Steal spoils Royals Rally

By John Viril | Sep 9, 2014