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Greinke, Royals sweep Tigers

Apr 3, 2008 - 9:24 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Zack Greinke kept the Detroit Tigers' potent bats quiet Thursday as the Kansas City Royals completed an unlikely season-opening sweep with a 4-1 victory.

Greinke (1-0) scattered six hits in seven innings, blanking the Tigers until Brandon Inge homered with one out in the seventh. Inge's homer ended Detroit's scoreless inning streak at 18.

Alex Gordon gave Greinke all the support he needed with a two-run shot in the fourth off Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman (0-1).

"We're a pretty good team," Greinke said. "But the worst team in baseball can beat the best team in baseball three straight, so this doesn't mean that much."

Mark Teahen added a solo homer in the sixth for the Royals, who had not opened a season with a road sweep since 1977, also against the Tigers.

Joakim Soria tossed a perfect ninth for his second save. He closed out all three games in the series.

"It's a nice thing to come here and play the way we have," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "The pitching was very solid, and we didn't panic when they got runners in scoring position."

The Tigers were limited to only five runs in the series. After dropping Monday's opener, 5-4, in 11 innings, they managed only three hits in Wednesday's 4-0 loss.

The loss - and the Tigers' play in the entire series - left manager Jim Leyland in an angry mood.

"We stunk," Leyland fumed. "Pretty simple. It's the manager's responsibility to have the club ready, and we don't look like we are. We look like we're just going up there and giving bats away without a purpose."

Detroit was without one of its big bats Thursday, as third baseman Miguel Cabrera was scratched from the lineup due to soreness in his left quadriceps.

The Tigers still had their chances, stranding eight. Detroit's best opportunity came in the fifth, when it had runners on first and second with one out. Greinke worked out of trouble by getting Placido Polanco to fly out and Gary Sheffield to foul out.

"In the sixth inning, I was thinking that things like this aren't going to happen to that (Tigers) team very often," Greinke said. "They might not have another stretch like this all season."

Bonderman allowed all four runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. Jose Guillen greeted reliever Aquilino Lopez with an RBI single in the seventh that made it 4-0.

"I threw the ball, just made two mistakes," Bonderman said. "I made a couple mistakes, and they punished me for it."

One of those mistakes came in the fourth, when Gordon snapped a scoreless tie with his second homer of the series.

After also hitting a two-run homer in Monday's opener, Gordon went 0-for-4 on Wednesday with three strikeouts.

"I struggled yesterday with all the strikeouts, so I wanted to do something today to help us win," he said.

The Tigers ran themselves out of a possible rally in the eighth when Sheffield reached on a bloop single to left field to start the inning. But Sheffield was thrown out trying to stretch the hit to a double. Carlos Guillen followed with a double one out later.

"That's a play that shouldn't happen," Leyland said. "But when you're not going good, it does happen. If you're going good, you're safe."