RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - AUGUST 22: Vinnie Pasquantino #9 of the Kansas City Royals congratulates Salvador Perez on his home run against the Detroit Tigers during the fourth inning at Kauffman Stadium on August 22, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann/Getty Images) | Getty Images
A bit wilder sort of game broke out on Sunday, but the result was the same. The Royals teed off on the Tigers bullpen, including Andrew Sears in his major league debut, all game long. The offense fought back repeatedly, but just couldn’t keep pace as the Royals swept them out of Kauffman Stadium with an 11-7 victory on Sunday.
Gleyber Torres was in the leadoff spot, and he opened the game with a solid single. Hao-Yu Lee, in against lefty Daniel Lynch IV, flew out. Kevin McGonigle nearly got his head knocked off by a 1-2 Lynch fourseamer, and then smashed a drive to the wall in right center field. Torres, not the fleetest of foot, scored all the way from first, and the Tigers had a 1-0 lead. Eduardo Valencia flew out sharply to right field, advancing McGonigle to third with two outs, but Lynch got ahead of Torkelson and then blew him away with a high fastball.
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Jacob Waguespack took the mound as an opener for lefty Andrew Sears, who was promoted to Detroit prior to the game, while James Outman was DFA’d. Eduardo Valencia was behind the plate, while Dillon Dingler got a full day off. Corey Julks was the DH, with Javy Báez in left field to stack right-handers up against Lynch. Nick Loftin and Bobby Witt Jr. both grounded out to start the inning. Waguespack jammed Vinnie Pasquantino, and he blooped a little flare that Torres caught running out into right field to end the inning.
Corey Julks led off the second by flicking a weak liner into center field that froze Kyle Isbel and dropped in for a single. Ben Malgeri flew out to left. Max Clark fell behind, then worked into a full count and lined a sharp single into right field. Unfortunately, Javy Báez is doing little but grounding out to shortstop lately, and he pulled one right into a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame.
Waguespack was still in to start the bottom of the second. Sal Perez dumped a single in front of a diving Malgeri to start things off. Isaac Collins blew the Royals first challenge of the game on an edge strike. A cutter that backed up away whiffed Collins as Ty Madden started warming in the Tigers’ bullpen. With John Rave at the plate, Perez caught everyone napping and stole second while Waguespack, understandably, paid him no attention, and Valencia seemingly couldn’t quite get a grip and elected not to throw. The right-hander walked the weak-hitting Rave, and that was the end of his outing. Madden rather than Sears took over.
Salvador Perez channeled his inner Jarrod Dyson after recording his first stolen base since 2021! pic.twitter.com/ATBb9jJICm
— MLB (@MLB) August 23, 2026
Madden immediately dug the hole deeper by hitting Tyler Tolbert, and so the weak hitting Luke Maile stepped in. Madden blew him away with 96 mph for the second out. Kyle Isbel then flicked a little slicing blooper into left and Báez hesitated a bit and the ball dropped in for a two-run single. A 1-0 fastball to Nick Loftin was thrown middle in right into a right-handed hitter’s sweet spot, and got smoked over the wall in left for a three-run shot. 5-1 Royals.
Madden got ahead of Witt 1-2, and then hung a splitter that was ripped to left for a single. Witt stole second, and then took third on a bounced breaking ball that got away from Valencia. Madden couldn’t locate much and walked Pasquantino as Tigers fans perhaps decided to move on and enjoy their Sunday. Perez checked his swing with two strikes, but Witt apparently thought he struck out and started coming down the line toward home plate. The Tigers ran him down to end the inning. Couldn’t say exactly what was going on in Witt’s mind on that one, but it’s unlikely he was feeling bad for the opposition.
Torres started the third by flying out to the warning track in right. Lee smoked one deep to right center field as well, but Isbel caught it on the warning track as well. McGonigle ripped one deep to center and that was an out too. Hitting it too hard, but not quite hard or high enough. Madden pulled it together in the bottom half, striking out Perez and Collins in a 1-2-3 frame as Sears started warming.
The Tigers stayed aggressive against Lynch in the fourth, swinging early in counts and they were generally hitting the ball hard so it was hard to argue with, but they went 1-2-3 in a six-pitch inning.
Andrew Sears took the mound in the bottom half to make his major league debut. The southpaw feels like a future swingman, but we were very curious to see how his sinker-slider combination would play in the big leagues, and whether he could keep refining his changeup into more of a weapon. Sears worked from the third base side of the rubber against the right-handed hitting Tolbert, and popped him up for the first out of his big league career. Sears popped up Maile as well, and we saw a fair amount of this in the minor leagues. Sears funky rhythm, crossfire delivery, extension and low arm slot all help to keep hitters off balance and often late. He stayed on the third base side of the rubber against the left-handed hitting Isbel, and got him to ground out to McGonigle to end a snappy first inning in the big leagues. Congrats to him.
1st @MLB strikeout for Andrew Sears 👏 pic.twitter.com/bMJItD1Dgi
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 23, 2026
Lynch nipped the corner down and away from Malgeri for a strikeout to start the fifth. Max Clark waited Lynch out and drew a one-out walk, and that was the end of the day for Lynch, who hasn’t been stretched out fully to start yet. Right-hander Mason Black took over against Báez, and the veteran finally took a different approach and lined a double into the right field corner. The Tigers held Clark at third, but he scored on a Torres ground out to sh...
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