KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Spencer Torkelson drove in five runs with two home runs for his second multi-homer game of the season. Javier Báez returned to the lineup with three hits, one walk and two stolen bases. Miguel Cabrera, the eldest player on the roster, made up for a pair of strikeouts with a pair of walks.
The offense did its part with 11 hits, seven walks and, eventually, 10 runs.
But the Detroit Tigers couldn’t put together a complete performance in Tuesday’s 11-10 loss to the Kansas City Royals in the second of four games at Kauffman Stadium. Left-hander Tarik Skubal surrendered seven runs across four innings in his third start since returning from flexor tendon surgery.
“I wasted an opportunity for our team to win,” Skubal said. “I didn’t do a good job of limiting damage. Not putting our team in a position to win, especially with the runs we scored tonight, it’s pretty frustrating. I’m disappointed in myself, for sure.”
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The Tigers (42-52) responded from Skubal’s struggles to keep the game within reach, cutting the deficit to 7-6 after the top of the sixth inning. The gap widened again, then closed again.
A ninth-inning rally just fell short.
“We’re going to play the whole game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I think these guys have demonstrated that, but it was nice to see us respond. … We made their guys work. We did have the right guy up at the end with a chance for a big swing and came up one run short.”
Tork time
Torkelson put the Tigers ahead, 2-0, by following Matt Vierling’s single with a 430-foot two-run home run to left-center field off left-hander Daniel Lynch’s third-pitch sinker on the outside part of the strike zone.
Trailing 7-2, the Tigers put together three consecutive one-out hits in the fifth inning: Andy Ibáñez’s single, Vierling’s single and Torkelson’s three-run home run. This time, Torkelson tagged a fifth-pitch knuckle curve for a 382-foot homer to left field.
“It feels good, but at the end of the day, we lost,” Torkelson said of his individual performance. “That’s a tough taste in your mouth, but it feels good and you can definitely take some things away from it.”
The second homer from Torkelson put the Tigers within two runs, down 7-5. In the sixth inning, Báez doubled and advanced to third base on a fielding error by left fielder MJ Melendez.
Báez scored on Akil Baddoo’s sacrifice fly and cut the Royals’ lead to 7-6.
Torkelson, hitting .233 with 14 homers in 92 games, finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs. He added a double to the right-field corner — his 21st of the season — in the seventh inning against right-handed reliever Carlos Hernandez.
“He’s hitting third, so we expect him to do a lot for us,” Hinch said. “Tonight, he showed some good concentration.”
A nailbiter, somehow
Facing righty Scott Barlow in the ninth, the Tigers slowly loaded the bases with Zach McKinstry’s single, Vierling’s walk and Kerry Carpenter’s walk. With one out, the next three batters reached safely: Jake Rogers (single), Báez (single) and Nick Maton (walk).
A runner scored from all three batters.
Just like that, the Tigers were down 11-9.
The deficit went to 11-10 when Baddoo grounded into a force out, which allowed Rogers to score from third base. But Riley Greene, who entered as a pinch-hitter back in the eighth inning, flew out to center for the third out.
Barlow threw 33 pitches.
Seven off Skubal
Before the Tigers’ unsuccessful comeback(s), Skubal — in his third start since returning form flexor tendon surgery — allowed seven runs on eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts in four innings.
He threw 45 of 64 pitches for strikes.
“It looked like he lost his location a little bit,” Hinch said. “They laid off some pretty good executed secondary pitches down, and they didn’t miss some leaky pitches over the plate. … Definitely felt like he threw better than the results.”
The 26-year-old looked electric in his first two innings, racking up all three of his strikeouts, but he struggled in his final two innings. He needed 32 pitches to record three outs in the fourth inning, and by that point, the velocity of his pitches experienced a noticeable decline.
The Royals tied the game, 2-2, in the third inning with a double from Edward Olivares (first-pitch four-seam fastball), a triple from Darion Blanco (first-pitch slider) and a sacrifice fly from Maikel Garcia (fourth-pitch slider).
Five more runs came in the fourth inning — making it 7-2, Royals — on three singles, two doubles, one triple and one walk.
“You got to locate pitches, speed them up, slow them down,” Skubal said. “I just don’t think I did a good job of executing. The pitch selection was fine, but I don’t think I executed very many pitches, and that’s the difference.”
Skubal tossed 31 four-seam fastballs (48%), 12 sliders (19%), 10 changeups (16%), nine sinkers (14%) and two knuckle curves (3%). He generated eight whiffs and eight called strikes.
His fastball averaged 95.2 and ranged between 92-98 mph.
Oh, that bullpen …
Right-hander Beau Brieske, the second reliever out of the bullpen, took over for the sixth inning — in search of keeping it a one-run deficit — in his second appearance of the season. He recently returned from a lengthy stay on the injured list with an ulnar nerve entrapment.
A leadoff walk foreshadowed Brieske’s command troubles, and with two outs, the Royals increased their lead to 9-6 with back-to-back doubles from Blanco (first-pitch slider) and Garcia (second-pitch changeup).
“He reverted back to a few bad habits, and they made him pay for it,” Hinch said. “It’s a good reminder for all of us that everything matters. Those runs in the middle of the game matter.”
The Tigers covered the final two innings with left-hander Chasen Shreve in the seventh and Brendan White in the eighth. The Royals tacked on two runs, taking an 11-6 lead, against White.
Blanco finished 4-for-4 with three RBIs.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.