Tigers win season opener with six-run seventh inning against Royals bullpen

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As it turned out, neither Zack Greinke nor Justin Verlander were the story in Detroit's 8-4 opening day win Monday against the Kansas City Royals.

The Tigers' six-run seventh inning and brilliant relief pitching told the tale. The new and old pieces in the batting order came together quite well in the tide-turning inning.

Rookie center fielder Austin Jackson, who later cut down a runner at the plate with a throw, made his first hit an RBI-double off reliever Robinson Tejeda that scored rookie second baseman Scott Sizemore, who had walked and moved to second on a Ramon Santiago single.

Then, new left fielder Johnny Damon laced a two-run double to give Detroit the lead. Damon had two hits and scored twice.

Miguel Cabrera drove in Damon with a single, and Carlos Guillen kept it going with his second single of the game.

Brandon Inge brought them both home with a hit-and-run double off Juan Cruz.
Three Royals relievers had given up six runs, and the sellout crowd of 40,052 booed long and loud with every run-scoring hit.

Detroit’s bullpen assured that the big inning held up. Joel Zumaya and Ryan Perry were brilliant and Phil Coke got the job done despite allowing two singles.

New closer Jose Valverde entered with a four-run lead and no save opportunity, but pitched a scoreless ninth to secure the win.

Neither Greinke nor Verlander were at their dominating best.

The Royals simply did a better job of capitalizing on opportunities.

Verlander got ahead of shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, 1-2, but Betancout battled to a full count before drilling a two-run homer in the second inning.

And first baseman Billy Butler, hitting .423 against Verlander entering the game, kept it up with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth.

Verlander left after five innings, having thrown 93 pitches and striking out six.

Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline, at the request of Detroit manager Jim Leyland, spoke with Tigers hitters near the end of training camp about the approach to take when facing pitchers such as Greinke.

“I had Kaline talk to them about the art of hitting against the best pitchers in the business,” Leyland said. “He made some real good points. You’ve got to grind. ... And sometimes it’s the little guys who gets the big pitchers, who are gearing up for the big boys.”

Detroit got two runs (one earned) on six hits against Greinke, who came out in the sixth with a 4-2 lead.

The Tigers caught a break in the first when third baseman Willie Bloomquist dropped a Guillen pop up, allowing Magglio Ordonez to score from second with two out. Ordonez had doubled off the wall for his 400th career two-bagger.

Greinke faced only one batter over the minimum in breezing through the next four innings. But Damon, Ordonez and Cabrera opened the sixth with successive singles for another run.

Detroit couldn’t make a big inning happen, however, as Greinke got the next three batters. Bloomquist, however, saved a couple runs by robbing Inge of a double down the line.