Royals 3 - 0 Tigers
Final
  for this game

Tigers eye sweep of Royals and first place in AL Central

Sep 10, 2014 - 3:04 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Rick Porcello has gotten the better of James Shields twice already this season.

With a chance to move past Kansas City for first place in the American League Central, Porcello will try to make it a hat trick on Wednesday evening as the Detroit Tigers go for a three-game sweep of the Royals.

Porcello is 15-10 with a 3.30 earned run average this season, but yielded six runs -- three earned -- and 11 hits over 6 2/3 frames of a loss to the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 31. The right-hander followed up with another setback to San Francisco on Friday, charged with six runs, one of them unearned, and 10 hits over a mere three innings of work.

"It was a combination of some good pitches that got hit and some bad pitches that got hit, and they capitalized on all of them," Porcello said.

The 25-year-old has allowed only three runs over 14 innings in a pair of wins over the Royals this year, defeating Shields both times.

Shields goes up against Porcello again tonight and is 0-2 with a 5.49 ERA in three meetings with the Tigers overall on the year.

Shields has won four of his last five decisions and pitched a gem last time out to get a 1-0 win over the New York Yankees on Friday. The righty gave up three hits and struck out six over 8 1/3 scoreless innings, retiring 11 in a row before allowing a one-out single in the ninth.

"Any time you face this team it's going to be a grind," Shields said. "To be able to pitch like that and save our bullpen for our road trip was nice."

The 32-year-old Shields is 13-7 this season with a 3.23 ERA.

Kansas City has lost 11 of 15 to Detroit this season, and allowed the Tigers to pull into a tie atop the AL Central by losing the first two games of this series. The Royals had won five of six overall coming in.

Max Scherzer, who was roughed up for a career high-tying 10 runs in a meeting with Kansas City on June 17, held the Royals to one run over 6 2/3 frames in last night's 4-2 Detroit win.

Rajai Davis smacked a two-run homer and J.D. Martinez added a solo shot in the triumph, Detroit's third in a row overall.

"This is a huge series and we're getting huge wins," Scherzer said. "We're playing great as a team and everybody is contributing."

The Royals nearly came back, putting their first two runners on base against Joe Nathan in the ninth, but the closer struck out Alex Gordon, picked off pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson at second base and fanned Salvador Perez to notch his 30th save of the season.

Jason Vargas surrendered four runs on six hits and three walks with six strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings for Kansas City.

"Two mistake pitches, both of them in the middle of the plate," Vargas said of his two homers allowed.

While Kansas City closer Greg Holland remains out due to a tight right triceps, Detroit reliever Joakim Soria is expected to be activated off the disabled list before tonight's game.

Soria, acquired from Texas on July 23, has been out since suffering a strained oblique on Aug. 9 and will provide a boost to the bullpen bridge to closer Nathan.






Related News