ARCHIVE May 9, 2026
May 9, 2026 · AL Cent

Detroit Tigers vs Kansas City Royals

May 9, 2026Kauffman StadiumPartly Cloudy 82°F · 10 mph, L To R
AWAY
Detroit Tigers
18-22
1
vs
HOME
Kansas City Royals
19-21
5

Scoring summary

INN BATTER PLAY SCORE
B1 Bobby Witt Jr. Bobby Witt Jr. hits an inside-the-park home run (5) on a line drive down the right-field line. Maikel Garcia scores. DET 0, KC 2
B4 Michael Massey Michael Massey homers (3) on a fly ball to right center field. Carter Jensen scores. Jac Caglianone scores. DET 0, KC 5
T8 Riley Greene Riley Greene doubles (12) on a fly ball to center fielder Kyle Isbel. Kevin McGonigle scores. DET 1, KC 5

Box score

  123456789 R
DET 000000010 1
KC 200300000 5

Pitching & bullpen

How the game was pitched — the starters, the bullpen sequence and each arm's role, and the pitch counts behind them.

Tigers AWAY 1

Tigers opened with Burch Smith, then turned the bulk of the game over to Tyler Holton. Out of the bullpen, Ty Madden took the roughest line.

workload · innings pitched
  • Burch Smith Opener 0.1 11 2 0 L
    Pitch-by-pitch: what Burch Smith threw
    CSW 9% 1st-pitch strike 75% 2.8 pitches/PA
    Pitch#%WhiffCSFoulBallIn play
    Cutter 4 36% 0 1 1 0 2
    Four-Seam Fastball 4 36% 0 0 2 1 1
    Curveball 3 27% 0 0 0 2 1
  • Tyler Holton Bulk 1.2 13 0 0 inherited 1, stranded 1
  • Ty Madden Middle 6.0 87 3 5
Royals HOME 5

Michael Wacha started for Royals, leaving with a 5–0 lead. Out of the bullpen, Matt Strahm took the roughest line.

workload · innings pitched
  • Michael Wacha Starter 7.0 89 0 6 W
    Pitch-by-pitch: what Michael Wacha threw
    CSW 26% 1st-pitch strike 56% 3.3 pitches/PA
    Pitch#%WhiffCSFoulBallIn play
    Four-Seam Fastball 30 34% 0 5 7 10 8
    Changeup 25 28% 2 6 4 10 3
    Cutter 19 21% 0 7 1 8 3
    Sinker 9 10% 1 2 1 2 3
    Curveball 5 6% 0 0 0 4 1
    Slider 1 1% 0 0 0 1 0
  • Matt Strahm Setup 1.0 18 1 1
  • Steven Cruz Middle 1.0 15 0 2

Where the game turned

2 runs Bottom 1st · off Smith
  • Jr. HR (2)

Batting lines

AWAY · DET
BATTER ABRHRBIBBK AVGOBPSLGOPS NOTES
Kevin McGonigle SS 3 1 1 0 0 0 .294 .395 .441 .836
Matt Vierling CF 4 0 0 0 0 1 .216 .276 .375 .651
Hao-Yu Lee 3B 1 0 0 0 0 0 .159 .213 .273 .486
Riley Greene LF 3 0 1 1 1 1 .310 .406 .479 .885 2B
Dillon Dingler DH 4 0 0 0 0 0 .231 .295 .438 .733
Wenceel Pérez RF 3 0 0 0 0 1 .167 .221 .278 .499
Spencer Torkelson 1B 4 0 1 0 0 2 .209 .329 .411 .740 2B
Zach McKinstry 2B 3 0 0 0 1 1 .185 .267 .296 .563 SB
Jake Rogers C 3 0 0 0 0 1 .167 .200 .278 .478
Colt Keith 3B 3 0 0 0 0 2 .312 .353 .376 .729
Kerry Carpenter RF 1 0 1 0 0 0 .216 .299 .451 .750
HOME · KC
BATTER ABRHRBIBBK AVGOBPSLGOPS NOTES
Maikel Garcia 3B 3 1 1 0 1 0 .270 .337 .419 .756 2B
Bobby Witt Jr. SS 4 1 1 2 0 0 .297 .369 .475 .844 HR (5)
Vinnie Pasquantino 1B 4 0 1 0 0 1 .191 .276 .355 .631
Salvador Perez DH 3 0 0 0 0 2 .191 .233 .322 .555
Carter Jensen C 2 1 1 0 1 0 .222 .313 .402 .715 2B
Jac Caglianone RF 3 1 1 0 0 1 .246 .321 .415 .736
Lane Thomas LF 3 0 0 0 0 1 .214 .364 .271 .635
Michael Massey 2B 3 1 1 3 0 0 .233 .256 .452 .708 HR (3)
Kyle Isbel CF 3 0 0 0 0 0 .274 .337 .411 .748

Pitching lines

AWAY · DET
PITCHER IPHRERBBKHR NPERA DEC
Burch Smith 0.1 3 2 2 0 0 1 11 3.09 L
Tyler Holton 1.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 13 4.15
Ty Madden 6.0 2 3 3 2 5 1 87 2.45
HOME · KC
PITCHER IPHRERBBKHR NPERA DEC
Michael Wacha 7.0 2 0 0 2 6 0 89 2.63 W
Matt Strahm 1.0 2 1 1 0 1 0 18 3.68
Steven Cruz 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 0 15 12.00

Manager comparison

AWAY · DET
A.J. Hinch
Lineup 3.5 R Bunts 0.4 R IBBs 0.6 R
HOME · KC
Matt Quatraro
Lineup 3.1 R Bunts 1.6 R IBBs 1.5 R

Recent form

AWAY · DET
5-4 W4 +6 run diff
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HOME · KC
5-5 W1 +7 run diff
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Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. The pitching analysis describes how the game was pitched — the starter's line, the bullpen sequence and each arm's role (opener, bulk, setup, closer), pitch counts as a fatigue signal, and the leverage context where the game turned. Reliever roles are inferred from how the manager used each arm up to that date. It describes structure and constraints; it does not grade the manager.

Read the full methodology.