Detroit Tigers veteran Wily Peralta wasn’t sharp in Sunday’s series finale against the Kansas City Royals.
The 32-year-old needed 29 pitches in the first inning, 18 in the second, 21 in the third, 19 in the fourth and, finally, 13 just to get two outs in the fifth frame. As Peralta labored on the mound, his opponent — left-hander Kris Bubic — dealt seven scoreless innings.
Peralta limited the damage to two runs on eight hits and three walks, but the Royals didn’t need much run support. They scored in the first and fourth innings, enough to give the Tigers a 2-1 loss in their final matchup with the Royals this season.
“Today wasn’t one of my best days,” Peralta said. “I struggled with my command from the beginning of the game. I still battled and made pitches and only gave up two runs to give the team a chance to stay in the game. We almost came back in the last inning. That’s my main goal. Those days you don’t have your best stuff, you still have to keep your team in the game.”
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The Tigers (75-80) didn’t apply much pressure to the Royals, finishing 5-for-32 with three walks, one hit-by-pitch and 11 strikeouts. (Niko Goodrum also reached safely on a fielding error from first baseman Carlos Santana in the second inning.)
They left runners in scoring position in the second and fourth. In the second, Daz Cameron struck out swinging. In the fourth, Goodrum grounded out to shortstop.
“He filled up the strike zone early and attacked us early with his fastball,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said about Bubic, who allowed just two hits and one walk in his seven innings. “We just didn’t generate a lot of offense. He was in command of the game because he really attacked us with fastballs.”
Still, the Tigers eventually scored in the bottom of the ninth off Royals reliever Scott Barlow.
Miguel Cabrera picked up an infield single, giving him 2,984 hits across his 19-year MLB career. The Tigers advanced Zack Short — Cabrera’s pinch-runner — to second base on Eric Haase’s full-count walk, and Isaac Paredes followed with a ground-rule double.
Paredes’ hit would have scored two runs had it not bounced over the wall.
“That’s pretty unlucky,” Hinch said. “I think the side wall was just low enough for them and not high enough for us.”
“It’s part of baseball,” Paredes added. “Things happen. It was exciting, but not so much because obviously we lost the game. We could have done better.”
Cutting Kansas City’s lead to 2-1, the Tigers had two runners in scoring position with one out. Goodrum then struck out swinging, pinch-hitter Robbie Grossman (for Daz Cameron) drew an intentional walk and, to end the game, pinch-hitter Harold Castro (for Willi Castro) struck out swinging.
“I got two pinch-hitters that I’m going to hit for two of three guys at the bottom,” Hinch said. “They’re going to walk Robbie, whether I put him up for Niko or put him up for Daz. That’s the decision, which of those three. I could have Harold and Willi or Niko and Harold, essentially. Any contact there was an opportunity to score.
“I got to consider defense, so there was a lot of moving parts there at the end. Knowing they were going to walk Robbie made the decision a little bit easier. They were going to walk him right away with one out, too.”
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Bubic threw 63 of 95 pitches for strikes and implemented a fastball-heavy approach: 65 four-seam fastballs (68%), 15 curveballs (16%) and 15 changeups (16%). To go with 10 swings and misses, Bubic benefitted from weak contact.
The Tigers averaged an 82.7 mph exit velocity against Bubic.
In the top of the ninth inning, Willi Castro robbed Whit Merrifield of a solo home run in left field. It was Castro’s eighth outfield appearance of his career. This season, he has started 79 games at second base, 19 games at shortstop, eight in left field and five as the designated hitter.
Merrifield finished 3-for-5 with two doubles.
Peralta struggles but grinds
The Royals opened the scoring early, ending Peralta’s scoreless streak at 16 innings. He recently achieved the mark with six innings against the Milwaukee Brewers and seven innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, as well as three of his four innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Kansas City put an end to his run behind Merrifield’s double and Nicky Lopez’s single to jumpstart the first inning.
Although slugger Salvador Perez struck out swinging, Kansas City capitalized on their first two at-bats with Andrew Benintendi’s RBI single to right field for a 1-0 lead.
“I think it was the right pitch,” Peralta said about his splitter to Benintendi. “I wasn’t able to execute it. I left it up in the (strike) zone, and he put a good swing on it. They’re great hitters. I wasn’t able to execute many pitches.”
Peralta continued his struggles by walking Carlos Santana to load the bases with one out. This time, he worked out of the jam. Adalberto Mondesi grounded into a force out, before Hunter Dozier struck out swinging at one of Peralta’s best splitters. (Earlier in the first, he struck out Perez with his slider.)
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Peralta also worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning, but he gave up his second run in the fourth on Nicky Lopez’s sacrifice fly. The opportunity for Lopez was set up by Cam Gallagher’s double and Merrifield’s single.
To complete the fourth, Peralta retired Perez and Benintendi.
Upon returning to the dugout, it wasn’t clear if Hinch would send Peralta back to the mound for the fifth inning, considering left-handed reliever Derek Holland had been warming up in the bullpen.
“That was the definition of living on the edge,” Hinch said. “Every inning, nothing was easy. He had to grind from the onset of the game. He vey easily could have broken, and that game could have been 3-0, 4-0, 5-0 with the way they were stranding runners. Credit to him for hanging in there.”
But Peralta trotted back out for the fifth. He recorded two outs — working around a walk from Adalberto Mondesi — before turning the ball over to Holland. Facing left-handed hitter Kyle Isbel, Holland’s fifth pitch produced the third out.
His catcher, Haase, received the curveball and threw out Hunter Dozier trying to steal second base.
Peralta threw 59 of 100 pitches for strikes, using 30 four-seam fastballs, 26 splitters, 23 sliders and 21 sinkers. He produced nine swings and misses, doing so with his four-seamer (one), splitter (three), slider (four) and sinker (one).
“He’s got mental toughness,” Hinch said. “He doesn’t cave and concede. He’s not a guy who’s going to throw the ball right now the middle, even when he’s spraying the ball. He’s going to continue to hang in there and try to make his pitches. He’s got secondary pitches that can rescue him.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.