AL Central gap closing between Tigers and Royals

The Tigers struggled once again Sunday when they fell to the Toronto Blue Jays in a whopping 19 innings thanks to their troubled bullpen.

In the ninth inning, Detroit led 5-4 but Joba Chamerlain gave up the game tying run for a Jose Reyes RBI single. Then, in the 19th inning where starting pitcher Rick Porcello was in for Detroit, Jose Bautista drove in the winning run.

The loss for Detroit marks their fifth in the last seven games and brings the streaking Kansas City Royals within a half game of the AL Central lead, a division that Detroit has dominated the past three years.

The Royals are fresh off sweeping the San Fransisco Giants and have won 15 of their last 18 games. Detroit and Kansas City have both fluctuated throughout their season. In fact, on July 21, Detroit was eight games up on Kansas City but now just three weeks later, Kansas City is only down half a game. Detroit was also up seven games on Kansas City on May 19th and then less than a month later was trailing the Royals by a game and a half on June 18.

The Tigers advanced to 4-1 odds to win the World Series after acquiring starting pitcher David Price from Tampa Bay according to vegasinsider.com, but their 63-52 record ranks fourth in the AL behind Oakland, Los Angeles (Angels), and Baltimore.

David Price has had two no decisions in his first two outings for Detroit where he gave up three earned runs but recorded 10 strikeouts agains the Yankees Aug. 5 and gave up four earned runs with six strikeouts in just six innings pitches in Sunday’s loss to Toronto.

Detroit and Kansas City still have six meetings left before the postseason beginning Sept. 8 in Detroit.