Montero's 71-Pitch Effort Unravels in Royals' Walk-Off Win

Keider Montero threw 71 pitches across six innings Friday night in Kansas City, allowed one run, struck out four, and walked one. Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch watched all of that and pulled him anyway. By the time the Royals walked it off in the bottom of the ninth, that decision had become the only number worth arguing about.

Montero was averaging fewer than 12 pitches per inning, the kind of efficiency that leaves a starter with a full arsenal in the sixth. He exited with Detroit leading 3-1 and his final frame clean — no traffic, no drama, no visible reason to hand the ball off.

The Tigers had built that lead methodically. In the top of the second, Spencer Torkelson grounded into a double play, but Riley Greene scored on the exchange to put Detroit up 1-0. Kansas City answered in the bottom of the second when Royals outfielder Isaac Collins lined a single to right, scoring Jac Caglianone to knot it at one. Detroit reclaimed the lead for good — or so it seemed — in the top of the sixth, when Wenceel Pérez lined a sharp double to center to score Dillon Dingler, then Torkelson doubled to left to score Pérez. Detroit 3, Kansas City 1.

That's where Montero's night ended.

Tigers reliever Tyler Holton handled the seventh cleanly — a pop-out, a lineout, and a swinging strikeout in 14 pitches, nothing gained, nothing lost.

Then came Kyle Finnegan in the eighth, and the evening came apart. Royals second baseman Michael Massey opened with a sharp double to center. Isbel followed with a ground-ball single to right; Massey scored, and Isbel advanced to third on a fielding error by right fielder Pérez. Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia then lined a single to center to score Isbel, and just like that the lead was gone — 3-3. Finnegan walked Bobby Witt Jr. before Hinch went to Brant Hurter, who got Vinnie Pasquantino to ground into a double play and escaped the frame without further damage.

Hurter returned for the ninth and retired Caglianone and Collins in succession. Then Nick Loftin doubled to center, and Isbel — who had already tied it — grounded a single to left off Hurter. Loftin scored. Royals 4, Tigers 3. Ball game.

Isbel's two singles were the spine of the collapse: the first cut the deficit to one and reached him on a fielding error that turned a single into a third-base camp; the second ended it. Finnegan, who recorded zero outs, absorbed the blown save.

Montero's line will sit in the box score looking like a win that got away from someone else. Seventy-one pitches, six innings, one earned run — a starter who left the mound with a lead and enough left to pitch.

Was 71 pitches and six innings enough reason to pull him?