Kansas City, Mo. –Tigers assistant pitching coach Juan Nieves threw his hat away. He was sure of it.
“He called the shot,” said Michael Fulmer, who capped off the Tigers’ tense 2-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night. “He said, ‘Tork homer here’ and he lowered his hat to confirm it. Everyone knows that, right? You throw your hat away to confirm your shot. You get one per game. S ‘he doesn’t hit it, you lose it.
“Juan understood.”
Did it ever.
Rookie Spencer Torkelson, with Miguel Cabrera in second and the Tigers trailing 1-0 in the seventh inning, hit an 0-1 lead, putting it 432 feet above the Tigers bullpen and into the small section of seats in left field. The ball left his bat with an exit speed of 111.5 mph.
He turned to the Tigers’ dugout immediately after contact and shouted, “Come on, baby!”
“I was pretty excited,” Torkelson said. “It was really good. And we needed it. That’s why it was so good.”
BOX SCORE: Tigers 2, Royals 1
Royals starter Brad Keller had the Tigers offense in a stranglehold, allowing just one single through the first six innings. By then, Keller had not allowed a run in 12 straight innings in his two starts.
Cabrera hit a double with one out to center right. It was the 2,995th career hit and the 599th double of his career. He is looking to become the seventh player to produce 3,000 hits and 500 homers.
And, just for fun, when he hits 600 doubles, he’ll join Albert Pujols and Hank Aaron as the only players to have amassed at least 3,000 hits, 500 homers and 600 doubles.
“It was huge,” said Tigers starter Tarik Skubal, who allowed just one unearned run and struck out seven in 5.2 innings of work. “With Miggy in second place, Keller has to work off the stretch. Maybe that leads to him leaving the lead on the plate to Tork. Who knows?”
At third at bat, Torkelson had measured Keller pretty well. He had the first hit against him in the fifth and hit the ball hard going 5-3 on his first time.
“He hit me my first shot with that lead and I had that on my mind,” Torkelson said. “And I didn’t take a good swing at the latter’s first slider at bat. He put it on me. I kind of thought he’d go back there.”
Keller did and Torkelson crushed him.
“I just had a better plan than him on that third at-bat,” Torkelson said.
It was his second home run of the week and his manager loved the emotion.
“It was a big emotional hit,” said AJ Hinch. “We’re in the final third of the game and the Royals have a closed bullpen. It’s hard to find. We play so many close games against these guys, a big swing like that puts a jolt in the dugout. .
“I love it when players show emotion, especially Tork, who has been under a lot of stress over the past 10 days or so trying to get back on his feet.” It was a great way to mark his arrival.”
After: Tigers place Casey Mize on 10-day injured list with sprained right elbow
Skubal was back on point after an unusually passive first start five days ago. He brought fire from the jump, his four seams hitting 97mph in the first run, and his slider, terrain he barely used five days ago, biting at 89-90mph, he downed the 11 first hitters for the Royals, striking out six.
“I felt more in sync,” he said. “I felt like on the last ride my legs didn’t match my upper body. I was in quite a lot of pain the next day and that’s quite abnormal for me. Only my upper body was more sore than usual.
“It just means something wasn’t connected. My upper body was kind of overcompensated.”
Salvador Perez snatched a ground fly ball just past shortstop Harold Castro with an out in the fourth to break Skubal’s streak, then Castro tossed a ground fly ball by Andrew Benintendi. Carlos Santana made the Tigers pay for it, cutting an RBI single to the right.
Skubal was 90 pitches into the sixth, and Hinch was without closer Gregory Soto and trainer Alex Lange (both had pitched three of the last four days).
“Guys were going to have to step up,” he said.
The guys did.
First up was right-hander Jacob Barnes, who took Skubal out of the sixth, forcing Santana to hit the floor switch with a runner at second. Hinch picked Barnes and his mean cutter to force Santana to hit left-handed, his least productive side of the plate.
“Yeah, I wanted to get Santana back there, make him go left-handed,” Hinch said. “With the cutter and three guys on the right side of the infield, we felt like the ground ball was there if he ran and he did.”
After the Torkelson Homer, Barnes pitched a clear seventh inning, then passed the baton to right-hander Joe Jimenez. Jimenez, after a first single, dropped the top three batters in the Royals’ order, knocking out Bobby Witt, Jr. (fastball swing) and Perez (slider, looking).
“His stuff is better, his pace is better, his body is moving,” Hinch said. “His times at home plate with (Nicky) Lopez first, there was no pass to second base. It was also three out in four days for Joe. We lean on him a bit, but I know Joe wants He worked his tail.”
Fulmer, who also throws on consecutive days, closed the run by forcing Benintendi to line up with Austin Meadows on the left, Santana to line up with a leaping Jonathan Schoop playing in shallow right field and knocked out Hunter Dozier with three right cursors.
“I felt pretty good today,” Fulmer said. “I only threw nine pitches (Thursday). I said to Fett (pitching coach Chris Fetter), it’s amazing how much you bounce back from those very stressful 20-pitch innings. Everything felt really good.
“But I put the ninth inning on the coaching staff. They played these guys in the right places, honestly. It was a good win.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @mccosky