Red Sox 2, Yankees 1: Steven Wright handcuffed New York with a steady supply of knuckleballs as Boston spoiled the debut of prospect Luis Severino, who yielded two hits and two runs in five innings. He got another one after he finished off a spotless seventh. Cueto was just a hair less effective than opposing starter Matt Boyd. “I told Daniel in the dugout that we’re home here”. It meant a lot that all the fans did that. “Dave’s been doing it a long time and had success in a lot of places and I would think his phone will be ringing off the hook”.
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Relying on his fastball and changeup, Boyd recorded 15 of his 21 outs through the air.
Oregon St. alum Matt Boyd broke into the bigs briefly earlier this season with Toronto, but took losses in both of his starts before being sent back to AAA ball.
After a sacrifice bunt and a line out gave Cueto an opportunity to escape from trouble, Anthony Gose tripled with two outs to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Avila’s son, Alex, catches for the Tigers.
“He mixed in everything”, he said. Sanchez contends his pitch just got away. “I don’t know how or why Mr. Ilitch made the decision”, Avila said.
Avila, now 57, worked with Dombrowski for the Florida Marlins in 1992, being promoted to director of worldwide scouting, where he is credited with scouting many players from Latin America, including Miguel Cabrera, now the Tigers premier hitter.
Cueto, making his second start as a Royal, threw well despite the lack of run support, giving Kansas City seven quality innings. He didn’t walk a batter for a career-best third straight start, but the Tigers are now 1-8 in his outings this year.
“I thought he was great again tonight”, Royals manager Ned Yost said. He had a really good slider and changeup, and he spotted his fastball well. “Outside of that, he was fantastic”.
“It was just awesome”, Boyd said. “We couldn’t center him up”.
And it raises legitimate questions on a variety of fronts, starting at the top, where Chris Ilitch, the president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, has seen his profile – and his influence – increase as he handles the family’s day-to-day business operations.
Avila inherits a team that is three games out of a wild card playoff spot in the American League, but whose four year run of division titles is about to come to an end.
The Tigers took the lead in the third on Gose’s fifth triple of the season.
Bruce Rondon pitched the eighth before Blaine Hardy and Alex Wilson combined to finish off the Royals.
Morales’ rare triple evened the score in the fourth. It was one of only two extra-base hits allowed by Boyd, and it was Morales’ first triple since September 7, 2012 when he hit a triple off former Tiger Max Scherzer in Anaheim.
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Another triple, second baseman Ian Kinsler’s leadoff shot into the right-center gap, led to the other Detroit run.
