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Well, you felt good about a sweep going in. All you had to do was best the Tigers bullpen, and after overcoming a 3-0 deficit to tie it after 4 innings, the Royals looked primed to sweep their divisional foe.

However, Gage Workman, who literally got recalled this afternoon from AAA hit his first career MLB homer off Nick Mears, it was worth two runs, and the Royals dropped the series finale 6-3.

It was another lackluster start for Noah Cameron. He went just 4 innings allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, walking 3 and striking out 4 batters. It took him 95 pitches to get just 12 outs.

John Schreiber threw a scoreless 5th. It’s still scary every time he takes the hill, but he has looked better after a very tough beginning of the season. Mears gave up a leadoff single ahead of the two-run homer.

Daniel Lynch IV finally looked human, struggling in his 2/3 of an inning. He allowed a run on two hits and a walk. Alex Lange pitched a scoreless inning, and two thirds and Steven Cruz threw a scoreless 9th inning for the second consecutive night.

Offensively, it looked like the April Royals. They were 3-11 with runners in scoring position and squandered an opportunity right out of the gate. After back-to-back singles in the bottom of the first, Vinnie Pasquantino weakly flew out to left, Isaac Collins fouled out to third and Carter Jensen fouled out to the catcher. Scoring right of the gate would’ve been the gut punch to the Tigers bullpen game plan and put a lot of pressure on the visitors, but the missed opportunity swung the momentum.

The Royals got a pair of runs back in the third after Garcia doubled and Witt singled. Vinnie came through this time with an RBI single and Jensen just missed a three-run homer with a sac fly to deep right field.

Garcia bailed out Elias Diaz and Kyle Isbel in the bottom of the 4th after Jac Caglianone led off the inning with a double, Garcia smacked a 2-out single to center to tie it at 3. Garcia was 3-3 after the first four innings of the game.

The Royals threatened in the 7th and 8th but hit into double plays that ended the threat. They went down 1-2-3 in the 9th.

The Royals finish the homestand 4-3. On the season, they are 3-4 against Cleveland, who they don’t play again until August and 2-4 against Detroit, who they don’t play again until July. A couple of key head-to-head tiebreakers as the season progresses.

The Royals are 19-22 on the season, just like the Tigers, and a game and a half back of the 21-21 Guardians for the division. The Royals are off tomorrow after 13 straight days of baseball. They have a three-game series against the White Sox in Chicago, and then next weekend are in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals. It’s a big trip and week for the Royals who are still trying to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves.

First pitch on Tuesday is at 6:40 p.m. CT, the game can be watched on Royals.TV. Stephen Kolek is expected to start.

The Syracuse Mets suffered their third straight loss to the Rochester Red Wings on Sunday afternoon, but some of the organizations top young talents enjoyed another big day.

Both A.J. Ewing and Ryan Clifford accounted for a bulk of the team’s offense. 

Ewing continued his strong start at the new level, picking up two more hits and driving in a run across four at-bats. 

One of those knocks was a double and he also stole a base.

The 22-year-old surging prospect is now hitting .333 with four extra base-hits, four RBI, five stolen bases, and a .844 OPS in 13 games since joining Syracuse. 

Clifford reached three times with a walk and a pair of extra base-hits. 

He helped Syracuse even things up with a 400 foot solo homer to deep right in the fourth, then ripped a triple down the right-field line before scoring on Christian Arroyo’s sacrifice fly in the sixth. 

The slugger is now hitting .252 with a triple, six doubles, seven home runs, 21 RBI, and an even .800 OPS after a bit of a slow start to the season. 

Not much went right for Syracuse on the pitching side of things, but Dylan Ross did strike out two as he worked around a pair of walks in a scoreless inning of work.

He was able to reach up to 99 mph on his fastball. 

27-year-old starter Xavien Curry and veteran lefty reliever Cionel Pérez made their first appearances with the organization after signing on minor league deals last week. 

PHOENIX — David Peterson received no love from his defense, particularly third baseman Andy Ibáñez, but he did his part to give the Mets an opportunity to win Sunday.

The lefty, who has been placed in the bullpen to work as a bulk reliever, pitched five innings without allowing an earned run in the team’s 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

All three runs that scored with Peterson on the mound followed Ibáñez’s second throwing error of the day, in the sixth inning.

“I think it’s just getting back to who I am as a pitcher, getting the sinker down, and using the four-seamer,” said Peterson, who owns a 5.49 ERA. “I feel like I have had better feel the last couple of outings with the changeup and the sliders continue to be good.”

Peterson surrendered two earned runs over four innings in relief on Monday in Colorado, both scoring after Carson Benge tripped chasing a fly ball in the outfield.

Peterson has been less successful as a starter.

In each of his last four appearances as a starter Peterson has surrendered at least four earned runs.

That included a seven-run meltdown over 3 ²/₃ innings against the Nationals in his last start, on April 29.

“I thought he was really good today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He got ground balls, made pitches, we didn’t make a couple of plays and it ended up costing us runs. But overall, I thought he threw the ball very well.”

Mendoza utilized Huascar Brazobán as the opener, sticking with him into the second inning and got burned when the right-hander walked two batters to begin the frame.

Tobias Myers got two outs before Ryan Waldschmidt delivered a two-run double for the game’s first scoring.

“Overall, [Brazobán] had a hard time throwing strikes today,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said he didn’t consider using Myers to start the second inning because of the right-hander’s recent workload.

“Toby was short today,” Mendoza said. “We knew we were going to try to get through the first time through the lineup with the two of them, it just didn’t work.”

Things were looking a bit better for the struggling Mets. 

Despite falling to the Rockies on a late-inning grand slam on Thursday afternoon, they showed some positives and took the first two series of their nine-game road trip. 

This weekend in Arizona, though, all of that was quickly erased. 

The Mets were able to salvage the series opener on Friday night thanks to Mark Vientos and some late-inning heroics, but otherwise the shorthanded offense wasted more strong pitching. 

Clay Holmes followed that by put together 5.2 innings of two-run ball on Saturday, only to be handed his second loss of the season as the bats managed just a run on three hits.

Despite facing struggling right-hander Merrill Kelly, who came into the night with a 9.95 ERA on the season, they didn’t record a baserunner after the top of the fifth. 

That stretch would carry into the fourth inning on Sunday afternoon, as 22 consecutive Mets were set down in order before Juan Soto drew a leadoff walk, which tied their season-high drought. 

While the perfect game was broken up, Arizona southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez kept his no-hit bid intact until Carson Benge laced a single with one out in the top of the sixth. 

Luis Torrens followed that with a double to breakup the shutout as well, but the D-backs answered back with three unearned runs in the bottom-half to put this one away for good. 

Rodriguez finished just two outs shy of his first career complete game, allowing just three walks and four hits. 

“He was hitting his spots,” Soto said. “He was throwing the ball well, he was being careful with the big guys and being aggressive with guys he thought he could be aggressive to.”

That's been the case of late for the extremely shorthanded Mets, as both Soto and Bo Bichette haven't nearly look like themselves with a lack of big threats behind them. 

Soto has just three hits in 33 at-bats this month, Bichette has seven in 36. 

New York dropped three of the final four games of the nine-game road trip, scoring just seven times over that span, after starting with four wins over the first six games. 

"We’re better than that,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Especially the past couple of days, we needed to be better.”

The younger Detroit Tigers powered them to victory on Sunday, snapping a five-game skid. Gage Workman launched his first major league homer after being called up for Kerry Carpenter earlier in the day. Hao-Yu Lee and Wenceel Pérez had big RBI knocks, as did Matt Vierling, and the bullpen was pretty good overall filling in for a suspended Framber Valdez as the Tigers won 6-3.

We at Bless You Boys hope you all had a good Mother’s Day and did something nice for your mother. The Tigers matchup vs. the Royals featured the usual array of pink bats, spikes, and catchers’ gear on a lovely sunny evening in Kansas City.

The Tigers got a leadoff walk to Matt Vierling from lefty Noah Cameron, a decent but certainly not overpowering starter in his second season, but didn’t take advantage. After Vierling reached, Kevin McGonigle battled through a long at-bat but ultimately popped out to shallow left field. Cameron kept everything soft and down to Jahmai Jones, who struck out swinging, while Dillon Dingler lined out sharply to Bobby Witt Jr.

Brenan Hanifee started things off in a bullpen game. Maikel Garcia hit a high chopper over Kevin McGonigle at third for an infield single. Witt Jr. lifted a weak flare to shallow right field and Wenceel Pérez froze before coming in late. The ball dropped and it was runners at first and second with no outs. Well this feels familiar. Vinnie Pasquantino popped out to shallow left field for the first out. Isaac Collins also popped out, this time foul down the third base line, and McGonigle hauled that in. With lefty Carter Jensen up, Hanifee’s work was done, and he didn’t allow a single well hit ball despite the results. Brant Hurter was warming, and AJ Hinch went to him to put Jensen away and snuff a potential rally. The big lefty got it done, quickly inducing a pop-up that Dingler handled.

Riley Greene led off the second, and he lined a ball to right field, and Jac Caglionone froze much like Pérez as the fading late day sun was directly into the right fielder’s eyes. Pérez was up next and he flipped a soft pop-up into shallow right field and again Caglianone looked like he never saw it off the bat. The ball got down, but Greene had to wait to see if it would drop and was thrown out by second baseman Nick Loftin at second. Spencer Torkelson took a curveball for strike three, Hao-Yu Lee, who hits for most of his power against lefties, crushed a drive off the right field wall for an RBI triple. So it was up to (checks notes) Zack Short? to drive in Lee from third. Shorty got into a full count, fouled off a cutter in on his hands, and then drew a walk. Nicely done.

That left it up to Matt Vierling, and he came through, cranking a drive off the wall in left centerfield. Lee scored, Short raced around from first to score, and Vierling cruised into third with a double and a one-base error after the Kyle Isbell had some trouble getting the ball in. 3-0 Tigers. Hamilton started McGonigle off with a pair of sliders on the outer edge. The Royals wasted a challenge on one of them, but in the end McGonigle slapped a broken bat grounder to Loftin for the final out.

Loftin drew a walk from Hurter to start the bottom half, but Caglianone grounded one to Torkelson, who fired to second to get the lead runner. Elias Diaz struck out as Hurter jammed him with a sinker, and Isbell lined out to Torkelson. Good defense from Torkelson in the inning.

Jahmai Jones opened the third with a rocket one-hopper that Maikel Garcia made a great diving play on, but the throw went a little wide and Pasquantino whiffed on it. They ruled it a single as Dingler dug into the batter’s box. Cameron was already at 60 pitches as Dingler drew a walk. This new Riley Greene with added plate discipline has been a rare nice development in the first quarter of the season. He worked a full count, but this time he chased a high heater for strike three. Pérez fouled off a pair of changeups and eventually worked a full count as well, but another changeup got a pop-up to Loftin. Eventually all this discpline and deep counts have to pay off, right? Not this time, as Cameron got ahead in the count pitching Torkelson in and then back-footed a slider for a whiff to turn the Tigers away.

Drew Anderson took over in the bottom of the third to take on the right-handed top of the Royals order. Garcia greeted Anderson with a double into the right field corner. An 0-1 changeup to Witt saw a grounder up the middle that tipped off Anderson’s glove. Lee cut across in front of Short moving toward third base, and couldn’t make the play as Garcia took third base. Anderson missed well down with a 2-2 changeup, and Pasquantino grounded a fastball away through the left side to score Garcia as Witt raced to third. That brought Chris Fetter out for a chat. Anderson responded by falling behind 2-0, but then worked back into 2-2 count and punched Collins with a power curve down and in for a whiff. That brought up Jensen and a first pitch slider was right down the middle. A fly ball deep to right field was caught by Pérez, but the sacrifice fly cut the lead to 3-2. Anderson punched out Loftin with a good changeup to finally get the Tigers off the field.

Lee flew out to right to open the fourth inning. Short flew out to deep left center field as Cameron neared 90 pitches. Vierling followed with a rocket to center field, but it was too low and Isbell hauled it in.

Anderson started the bottom half giving up an opposite field double to Caglianone. He bounced back to blow away Diaz and whiffed Isbell on a curveball. Unfortunately, that brought up Garcia again and he lined an RBI single to center to tie the game. The throw from Vierling should’ve gone to second, but Vierling tried to fire it home with no chance to get Caglianone, and that gave Garcia second base with Witt at the plate. Fortunately Witt flew out to left to end the inning. Still, after a bunch of solid outings in a row, Anderson had coughed up a three-run lead as we headed to the fifth inning.

Cameron was still on the mound despite being over 90 pitches, but he was just there to get McGonigle. The rookie nearly homered just down the right field line, but it went foul, and so he singled to center field instead. That brought John Schreiber into the game in relief of Cameron. That took Jones out of the game, with Colt Keith pinch-hitting for him as the DH. After another long at-bat, Keith flew out softly to left field. Dingler worked a full count and then chased two fastballs up and whiffed to strike out. Schreiber fell behind to Riley Greene and didn’t appear to want anything to do with him as the Tigers’ left fielder walked, but Pérez’s struggles hitting left-handed continued and he tapped back to Schreiber to squander the chance.

Enmanuel de Jesus took over in the bottom half, and he racked up three quick outs on balls in play. The middle out was a rocket to center from Isaac Collins, but Vierling hauled it in to send this to the sixth.

Nick Mears took over for the Royals, and Torkelson greeted him with a solid single to start the inning. Zach McKinstry pinch-hit for Hao-Yu Lee, but he took a pair of called strikes and then chased a slider down and popped out to shallow left. That brought up newly promoted infielder, Gage Workman, hitting for Short. An 0-1 fastball clanged off Diaz’s glove to the backstop but Torkelson read it poorly and didn’t advance. That didn’t matter, because Mears hung a breaking ball down and in and Workman launched it just fair down the right field foul line for his first major league home run. You’ve gotta love it.

Workman was teammates with Torkelson back at Arizona State and drafted by the Tigers in 2020 as well, as their fourth rounder in the five round draft. He struck out way too much, and eventually had to ditch switch-hitting and go lefty full-time, but he’s always had good power and speed, and solid defense at third base and decent shortstop too in a pinch. He was taken by the Cubs in the 2024 Rule 5 draft and got a look at the majors with them, and briefly the White Sox, last summer before being returned. It’s been a long road to get to the majors with the Tigers, but Workman has been white hot for a month in Toledo and finally got the call. Way to announce your arrival, Gage. You’ll be delighted to know his middle name is Tater. No joke. Baseball family.

That blow made it 5-3, but was followed by a Vierling strikeout, and Matt Quatraro turned to lefty Daniel Lynch IV against McGonigle. The rookie drew a walk, but Keith popped out again to end the frame.

De Jesus got Loftin on a pop-up, and then a deep flyout from Caglianone out to Vierling. Diaz grounded out to McKinstry to end the inning, and that was six straight outs for de Jesus, though with precious few whiffs involved. Could the Tigers now go three innings without allowing two runs? The Magic 8-ball says “reply hazy, try again.”

Dingler struck out to start the seventh, but Riley Greene pulled a hot ground ball down the right field line for a double. Pérez, hitting right-handed now, spanked a grounder back through the box for a single. Isbell pointlessly fired home with Greene easily scoring, and that let Wenceel take second base. 6-3 Tigers. That brought Torkelson to the plate, and it brought Quatraro out to call on old friend Alex Lange and the turtleneck of destiny. Pérez, knowing Lange’s long history of failure in holding runners, tried to exploit it by stealing third, but Diaz cut him down by a foot. Trying to get to third with Torkelson at the plate and one out is worth the attempt, but instead there were two outs, and after Torkelson walked, McKinstry grounded out to end the frame.

Lane Thomas pinch-hit for Isbell against the southpaw de Jesus to start the bottom half. De Jesus froze him with a good fastball on the bottom rail for strike three. Thomas lost the Royals last challenge on that one, but was wrong. So that was seven straight outs from de Jesus, and that was the end of his night with Garcia and Witt coming up. Hinch turned to Kyle Finnegan, hoping to get five outs from him and then presumably turn this over to Kenley Jansen in the ninth.

Instead, Finnegan took over and walked Garcia on four straight pitches. Witt pulled a hard grounder to third, and Workman fired to McKinstry and on to first for a 5-4-3 double play to send us to the eighth.

Workman flew out to left center field to start the inning. Vierling and McGonigle grounded out, and we were on to the bottom of the eighth.

Finnegan quickly gave up a sharp single to center field from Pasquantino. Collins bounced one to Torkelson, who fired to McGonigle to cut down Pasquantino. Jensen fell behind 1-2, but a pair of balls made it a full count and Finnegan missed down to walk him. Finnegan’s walk rate is already horrendous and it was getting worse in this game. Michael Massey pinch-hit for Loftin, but grounded into a slick 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. On to the ninth.

Right-hander Steven Cruz took over from Lange in the top of the ninth and just blew Keith away with high 90’s fastballs. Dingler worked a full count and smoked a cutter away up the left center field gap for a double. In a 1-1 count, Riley Greene challenged a fastball just off the outer edge successfully and so it was 2-1 and Cruz missed away again and then up to walk him as Greene reached for the fourth time in this one. Pérez popped up to third base, and Torkelson struck out.

So it was Kenley Jansen time. The right-hander hadn’t pitched in six days, and perhaps that allowed the slight groin strain he was dealing with for a few weeks to abate. Either way, he went through the Royals with no trouble, breaking Caglisnone’s bat on a baby bloop to Workman at third, and then blowing away Marte and Thomas to end it.

The Tigers move back to 19-22, tied with the Royals for third and a half game behind the White Sox. They’ll have a day off on Monday to rest their bullpen before tackling the struggling Mets on the road on Tuesday.

MILWAUKEE — Back in the spring, when he was still in the midst of his rehab from October elbow surgery, Carlos Rodón acknowledged that his command was a work in progress with a newfound range of motion in his left arm.

After his season debut Sunday, it appears that work remains ongoing.

Rodón issued five walks, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch across 4 ¹/₃ innings, spoiling his first start of the season in what became a 4-3 loss to the Brewers, who swept three games from the Yankees at American Family Field.

“Definitely was hyped up a little bit,” said Rodón, who struck out four, three on sliders. “Obviously need to be better in the aspect of attacking the zone and getting ahead quick. Some stuff to work on.”

The left-hander, who underwent surgery to remove loose bodies and shave down a bone spur in his left elbow, threw 42 of his 78 pitches for strikes.

Of his five walks, three came leading off an inning, and while he was able to work around the first two, the problem finally came back to haunt him in the fourth inning.

Rodón threw eight straight balls to begin the frame, then two pitches later misfired a 95 mph fastball that hit Andrew Vaughn on the left shoulder to load the bases.

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Two outs later, including a sacrifice fly that cut the Yankees lead to 2-1, Rodón sprayed a slider that got past J.C. Escarra to the backstop, allowing the runners to move up to second and third.

That proved costly when former Yankees farmhand Blake Perkins roped a single to center field, scoring both runners for the 3-2 Brewers lead.

“None of that happens if I get ahead and get guys out,” said Rodón, who was not entirely sure why he struggled with his command. “Just a little quick in the delivery, a little forward as I’m releasing the ball, so trying to make the adjustment and pour it in [the strike zone]. Obviously that didn’t work. Just got to be better.”

Rodón’s fastball velocity did tick up — which the Yankees were hoping would be one of the benefits of the surgery — as his four-seamer averaged 95.7 mph, up from 94.1 mph last season.

But he acknowledged that doesn’t matter much if he is not commanding the zone.

“[The walks were] the bugaboo, because I thought overall the stuff was good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The fastball ticked up, being up here. I thought he had a really good changeup and some good sliders to get some swing-and-miss. … Obviously got to be a little more in the zone, especially starting off innings.”