The Pittsburgh Pirates have been battling the St from miao1234's blog
KANSAS CITY, Mo. Peyton Manning Pink Jersey . -- Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus was feeling ill even before Friday nights game against Kansas City, so he told bench coach Gene Lamont in the second inning that he was heading upstairs. He missed having a front-row seat to watch his pitching staffs magic act. Just like Houdini making his greatest escapes, Anibal Sanchez and the Tigers bullpen wiggled out of jams in every inning. Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera drove in a run apiece, and that was just enough to give the AL Central-leading Tigers a 2-1 victory over the second-place Royals. "We really had to fight for this one," Tigers catch Bryan Holaday said. Sanchez (6-3) scattered eight hits without a walk over seven innings, Joba Chamberlain got out of a tense eighth, and Joe Nathan worked around a single and a walk in the ninth for his 19th save -- and give Detroit its fifth straight win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium this season. Nathan got Nori Aoki to ground out on a full-count pitch to end the game. "Obviously we have to play them a lot more," Chamberlain said. "We just have to keep grinding." Salvador Perez drove in the only run for the Royals, who squandered a solid start by Danny Duffy (5-9). He gave up both runs, only one earned, while losing for the fourth time in five starts. "Up against a guy like Sanchez," he said, "you cant make any mistakes." The Royals appeared to be 90 feet from tying it with no outs in the eighth, when Aoki swiped second base and went to third when the throw from Holaday squirted into centre field. While that was going on, though, plate umpire Chad Fairchild was calling batter interference on Lorenzo Cain for stepping into the way of the throw to second. Cain was out and Aoki was forced to make the long, slow trot back to first base. He wound up getting stranded by Chamberlain. "That was a big play," said Lamont, himself a former catcher. "Chad made the right call. Im sure the Royals fans dont think so, but he did make the right call." After the Tigers opened the series with a 16-4 blowout Thursday night, Sanchez and Duffy waged an entertaining pitchers duel. And just like when they met in June, Sanchez was one run better. Duffy surrendered a leadoff double to Austin Jackson and an RBI single to Kinsler in the first inning, and then gave up another run in the third when Cabrera hit a lazy sacrifice fly. Duffy wound up allowing five hits while striking out six without a walk. He departed after hitting the Tigers Nick Castellanos leading off the seventh inning, but Kelvin Herrera -- who hit the first batter he faced -- managed to wiggle out of the jam without any more damage. Meanwhile, Sanchez was churning through the Royals lineup. They scored their only run in the first inning when Eric Hosmer stretched a single into a double and Perez followed with a base hit. Sanchez struck out Billy Butler to end the inning, and then kept Kansas City at bay over the next six -- though none of them was clean. Sanchez worked around a single in the second, a double in the third, a leadoff single in the fourth, and singles in the fifth and sixth innings without another run. His tensest moment came in the seventh, when Mike Moustakas doubled off the wall in centre field, missing a tying homer by a couple of feet. The Royals advanced Moustakas to third with a groundout, but Sanchez induced two more groundouts -- one a magnificent spinning stab by shortstop Eugenio Suarez -- to quietly end the threat. "Same thing we see every time. He was unreal," Moustakas said. "Hes so good at commanding his pitches and mixing speeds with different pitches and different counts. Hes a tough at-bat any time. He commands both sides of the plate with all of his pitches, and he adds and subtracts his fastball. He does whatever he wants." NOTES: Sanchez is 5-2 with a 1.08 ERA in his career against the Royals. ... Tigers DH Victor Martinez (strained left side) missed his fifth straight game. Kinsler replaced him on the AL All-Star roster Friday. ... The Royals were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position. ... The Royals activated Aoki (strained left groin) from the DL and optioned INF Christian Colon to Triple-A Omaha before the game. ... Tigers RHP Rick Porcello faces Royals RHP James Shields on Saturday. Cody Latimer Broncos Jersey .ca MLB Power Rankings. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been battling the St .Louis Cardinals for the top spot in the National League Central and after winning four of five against the Cardinals (as well as the Cardinals losing catcher Yadier Molina to a knee injury), the Pirates finally captured the prime ranking position. Peyton Manning Fem Fan Jersey . Zoran Dragic scored 23 points for Slovenia in a game between two quarterfinal losers. Slovenia will play for fifth place and Serbia for seventh.HOUSTON -- Houston Astros right-hander Mark Appel, the top overall pick in the 2013 draft, is recovering after an appendectomy. Appel had the procedure in Houston in Thursday. General manager Jeff Luhnow says the team expects the pitcher will be able to report to spring training on time. Thhe Astros also announced that left-hander Raul Valdes had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee this week. John Elway Jersey. . Valdes will report to camp on Feb. 15, but his recovery time is estimated at four to six weeks. Valdes was claimed off waivers from Philadelphia in October. ' ' '
The Wall