Tigers Win 7 In A Row, Beat Royals 3-0
DETROIT (WWJ) - Getting eight scoreless innings from Brad Penny helped the Detroit Tigers on their way to a seventh consecutive win, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.
As heard on 97.1 The Ticket the Tigers have won 10 of their last 11 games. Speaking post game with The Ticket's Jeff Riger, Victor Martinez spoke about the win: "We've been playing good baseball as a team ... that shows you what kind of team we have," says Martinez.
Looking to sweep the three game series against the Royals, Martinez says that they will keep doing what they've been doing, showing up and working hard as a team.
Detroit scored three runs in the first inning, then held on for the win. The Tigers made four marvelous plays in the field to prevent a Kansas City comeback.
Jhonny Peralta hit an RBI single and a sixth-inning double to reach 1,000 hits for his career.
Penny (4-3) allowed five hits and no walks in eight innings, striking out two. Jose Valverde struck out two more in a hitless ninth, earning his 10th save.
Jeff Francis (0-5) pitched all eight innings for Kansas City, allowing seven hits and a walk. He struck out four.
The Tigers scored three runs in the first on five singles. The last three hits came from Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Peralta, each driving in a run.
Martinez extended his hitting streak to 13 games.
One day after being shut down by Justin Verlander, the Royals fared no better against Penny, whose defense helped him throughout.
Third baseman Brandon Inge caught a foul popup while falling into the crowd to end the top of the second. With a man on second and one out in the fourth, right fielder Casper Wells made a sliding catch on a hard line drive by Jeff Francoeur, then center fielder Austin Jackson made a backhanded catch with his back to the plate on a deep fly ball by Eric Hosmer.
Second baseman Scott Sizemore made a diving stop to his left on a groundball in the seventh.
Penny has pitched at least six innings without allowing an earned run in three of his last five starts.
The home crowd gave Peralta a standing ovation after his milestone hit in the sixth, which also gave the Tigers at least one extra-base hit in all 40 games this season.
Peralta now has a 10-game hitting streak.
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