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Galarraga dazzles as Tigers sweep Royals

Jul 23, 2008 - 10:38 PM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Rookie Armando Galarraga took a perfect game into the seventh inning as the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-1, Wednesday afternoon.

The 26-year-old rookie righthander picked up his first win in more than a month as the Tigers swept the three-game series, outscoring Kansas City by a 33-6 margin.

David DeJesus singled to right field on a 3-2 pitch to lead off the seventh inning, spoiling Galarraga's bid to become the first rookie to throw a perfect game since Charlie Robertson achieved the feat for the Chicago White Sox against the Tigers on April 30, 1922.

"I knew about (Galarraga's perfect game)," DeJesus said. "I was DHing and so I was hitting in the cage between innings and I heard (Royals radio announcer) Ryan (Lefebvre) talking about it a lot. We can't worry about that. You just have to go up there and not put too much pressure on yourself. It was good that we broke it up."

"That was a great pitch," Tigers catcher Brandon Inge said of DeJesus hit. "It was an inside fastball that jammed him. It was just one of those things that didn't work out, but it was pretty cool, though."

Galarraga (8-4) pitched seven innings, allowing one run and three hits while walking one and striking out a career-high seven. The Venezuelan leads American League rookies in victories.

"I was not trying to think about it," Galarraga said of the perfect game. "I knew about it because the fans were yelling at me about it. I was not trying to change anything. It was only six innings so I still had to get nine outs. I wasn't nervous; I was just trying to get a good game."

The Tigers jumped on Royals starter Zack Greinke (7-7) for five runs in the first three innings, with Miguel Cabrera driving in a pair and Placido Polanco scoring twice.

"I'm using my fastball too much," Greinke said. "It was going to be a low-scoring game and I needed to do better, maybe throw more off-speed pitches. If I had zeros on the board, too, I could have admired (Galarraga's perfect game), but when you're struggling you're worried about what you're doing instead."

Cabrera added an RBI single in the seventh inning for his 10th RBI of the series while Magglio Ordonez also had three hits and two RBI. Polanco extended his hitting streak to eight games with three singles.

"We feel good right now," Cabrera said. "We feel like we're playing better. When we get a man in scoring position we put the ball in play and do whatever we can to score some runs."

"We've been taking good at-bats and as long as we keep doing that it's going to be an interesting division," Polanco said.

Greinke allowed five runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out eight through six innings as he suffered his first home loss of the season.

DeJesus had two of Kansas City's four hits in a game that began barely 12 hours after the last pitch of Tuesday's night game, a rain-delayed contest that ended at 12:37 a.m. local time.

"I thought we were a little lethargic," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "We gave some at-bats away. Still, it was good to break up the no-hitter and put a run on the board. To be able to break two eggs - in the hit column and the run column - gives us a ray of hope."

Rookie shortstop Mike Aviles had his career-best 12-game hitting streak snapped as the Royals managed just 19 hits in the series, 13 of which were singles, while being outhit by the Tigers, 43-19.

The win moved Detroit (52-49) to a season-high three games over .500 as they prepare for a weekend series against the first-place Chicago White Sox.

"Right now we're playing well," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We're a good, tough team and at some point we were bound to play well. When you get a good pitching performance like we did from Armando today you're able to sustain it. But, as I've said a thousand times, you're only as good as your starting pitching."