Denny Hocking got to wear the hero’s crown for the Royals on Wednesday. His two-out, two-run, bases-loaded single gave them a 4-3 win over the Tigers and allowed Kansas City to dance around their 100th loss for the fourth straight game.
Coming into the ninth, the Royals had managed just five hits. One of them was a solo home run from Aaron Guiel that cut Detroit’s lead to 2-1 in the third inning. Emil Brown hit a sacrifice fly that scored Mike Sweeney in the sixth that, again, cut Detroit’s lead to one run.
It stayed 3-2, Tigers, until the Royals seemingly jumpstarted their offense out of nowhere. Matt Stairs led off with a single and was replaced on the bases by David DeJesus. After Brown grounded into a fielder’s choice and moved DeJesus to second, Mark Teahen doubled to right, putting runners at second and third. Angel Berroa was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Catcher John Buck had a chance to win the game, but struck out. That’s when Hocking was inserted to hit for Andres Blanco.
Kyle Snyder relieved starter Jimmy Gobble with one out in the sixth inning. Gobble allowed a lead-off homer to Chris Shelton and gave up a single to Magglio Ordonez in the inning. Snyder (1-3) finished off the final 3 2/3 innings and gave up no runs to get his first win of the season.
Royals’ owner David Glass told the Kansas City Star that he plans on raising payroll to around $50-million in 2006. That would be an increase of about $14-million.
