O.C., California- Staffeln » DETROIT (AP) — When the Kansas City Royals

acquired Brad Keller during last winter’s Rule 5 draft http://www.padresfanproshop.com/authentic-eric-hosmer-jersey , they committed themselves to keep him on the roster all season.As it turned out, that hasn’t been a problem.Keller pitched seven strong innings as the Royals held on to beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Sunday.Keller (9-6) allowed one run on three hits, walking three and striking out two. He improved to 5-1 with a 2.25 ERA in his last eight starts.“The first three or four innings, he was dead-on mechanically and just banging in strike after strike,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “After that, he was still fighting it a bit, but he hung in there and gave us seven more strong innings.”Keller has only allowed more than two earned runs once since August 7.“I was attacking them with my fastball, mostly,” he said. “They were sitting on my slider a little, so I went after them with the heater.”The teams split the four-game series that finished Detroit’s home season. The Royals won the season series 11-8.The Tigers finished 38-43 at home, four games better than 2017, but drew 1.86 million fans — the fewest since they had 1.37 million while losing 119 games in 2003.“We wanted to win this one for our fans,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’ve got 90-some losses http://www.padresfanproshop.com/authentic-jose-pirela-jersey , but they were still standing and cheering until the last pitch.”The Royals led 3-1 in the ninth. Niko Goodrum led off the inning with a bunt single off Wily Peralta. Ronny Rodriguez added a one-out base hit, and Grayson Greiner walked to load the bases.Victor Reyes hit a sacrifice fly to pull the Tigers within 3-2 before Peralta struck out Jim Adduci to earn his 13th save.“Wily makes it a tightrope walk, but he’s 13-for-13,” Yost said. “They got a perfect bunt and a big walk, but he didn’t panic. He just kept making pitches.”Daniel Norris needed 98 pitches to complete five innings, allowing one run on six hits and two walks. He struck out three.“I didn’t have any kind of command, so I was in three-ball counts on almost every hitter,” he said. “The only thing I could count on was my slider, so I just kept trying to spin that in there to get out of trouble.”The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first on Adalberto Mondesi’s 12th home run and could have added to the margin in the third. Kansas City loaded the bases with one out, but Hunter Dozier grounded into an inning-ending double play.Kansas City stranded two more batters in the fourth but had pushed Norris’ pitch count to 84.“That’s the thing with Daniel — he might get into trouble, but he’s always going to give everything he’s got to get out of it,” Greiner said. “We were trying to find pitches that would work.”Jeimer Candelario led off the fourth with a single — Detroit’s first hit — and Christin Stewart moved him to third with a hit-and-run single before Nicholas Castellanos tied the game with a sacrifice fly.The Royals regained the lead with two runs in the sixth off Drew VerHagen (3-3). With two out, Alcides Escobar and Rosell Herrera singled before Herrera stole second. Cam Gallagher blooped a ball to shallow left http://www.giantsfanproshop.com/authentic-austin-jackson-jersey , and Stewart couldn’t make a sliding catch.“When (Keller) is dominating like that, you just want to get him some runs,” Gallagher said. “I hit that ball pretty weakly, but it got down in front of the outfielders. That’s how this works.”GET IN THEREHarold Castro made his major league debut, entering as a pinch-runner for Greiner in the ninth.TRAINER’S ROOMTigers: CF JaCoby Jones missed the game after aggravating a shoulder injury while attempting a diving catch on Saturday.UP NEXTRoyals: Start a two-game series in Cincinnati on Tuesday. Eric Skoglund (1-5, 5.60 ERA) starts the opener against Matt Harvey (7-9, 4.92).Tigers: Begin a three-game series in Minnesota on Tuesday, with Spencer Turnbull (0-1, 10.80) taking the mound. SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants lost another player and the New York Mets took a step toward getting one back as the clubs prepared for a three-game series that begins Friday night with one still clinging to a sliver of playoff hope.The Giants (67-68) began Thursday — an off day for both teams — seven games back in the National League West and 7 1/2 behind Milwaukee for the second NL wild-card spot, then fell another half-game back of the Brewers (75-60) after Milwaukee beat the Cincinnati Reds in an afternoon affair.Meanwhile, the Giants learned they’d also lost center fielder Steven Duggar, their hottest hitter of late, for the rest of the season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder.Article continues below ...“The timing is awful Derek Holland Jersey ,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Duggar, who provided difference-making hits in wins over Texas on Sunday and Arizona on Monday. “He was really in a good place.”The three games against the Mets, the fourth-place team in the NL East, provide a short break from a heavyweight-laden September schedule in which the Giants will go up against teams ahead of them in the standings — Colorado, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Colorado again — for 12 straight games starting Monday.The Mets have done a good job playing spoiler while encountering a rough patch of their own schedule. They split four games against the Giants last week in New York as part of an 8-7 run against Philadelphia (3-2), San Francisco (2-2), Washington (2-1) and the Chicago Cubs (1-2).In the meantime, the Mets have been trying to get their own house in order, sending former All-Star third baseman David Wright to the minors in his bid to play this season despite recent neck, back and shoulder surgeries.Wright, who went 1-for-9 in two games for Triple-A Las Vegas this week, has rejoined the parent club in San Francisco Buster Posey Jersey , but solely to continue rehab for the time being.“We just haven’t seen that level of consistency of playing on a quantity or quality at this point,” Mets interim general manager John Ricco said this week, indicating that reinstating Wright to the major-league roster — even as they expand Saturday — was no sure thing.“Quite frankly as this point,” Ricco continued, “he hasn’t been able to make some of the benchmarks that were laid out for him (as he began his rehab stint).”Wright hasn’t played in a major-league game since May 2016.Zack Wheeler (9-6, 3.46 ERA), dealt from the Giants to the Mets for Carlos Beltran in 2011, will make his third career start in San Francisco since the trade. He’s 1-1 with a 4.22 ERA in the first two.The former No. 6 overall pick of the 2009 draft by the Giants has lived up to the early projections since the All-Star break, a stretch during which he has the second-best ERA in the NL (1.17) in seven starts.He’s 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA in five lifetime starts against the Giants.Rookie left-hander Andrew Suarez (5-9, 4.42), coming off seven shutout innings in a 5-3 win over Texas last Saturday, is scheduled to open the series for the Giants. He has never faced the Mets.