It would be an understatement to say that Royals' left fielder Jose Guillen has struggled this season. Coming into the series opener against Detroit on Tuesday night, Guillen had a .207 average with 32 Ks, and a measly .597 OPS to start the young campaign. Many said that he is a career slow-starter and will eventually hit his stride.
Maybe he has already found it. Guillen went 2-4 with two ringing doubles and two RBIs in the Royals' 3-2 clipping of the Tigers.
Detroit got off on the right foot in the first inning, as Carlos Guillen doubled in Placido Polanco to make it 1-0 in favor of the Tigers. In the very next inning, rookie Matt Joyce took Zack Greinke deep and suddenly it was 2-0 Tigers.
In the bottom of the third, the Royals had two on with two outs, and Jose Guillen striding to the dish. Guillen pounded Nate Robertson's 1-1 offering off the left center-field wall to tie up the score at two. The game stayed deadlocked at two until disaster struck the Tigers in the bottom of the eighth.
Mark Teahen sent a grounder up the middle, and Edgar Renteria made a great play to get to the ball. However, Renteria proceeded to blindly toss the ball to Polanco for the force, and ended up missing his target by a wide margin. As the ball rolled toward the pitcher's mound, Esteban German came in to score what would be the game-winning run.
Joakim Soria came in for the final inning, and shut down the Tigers for his ninth save on the young season.
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2 months ago
Did you see that one clip of the two royals nailing each other at the warning track? Thats just plain no communication Bill. I hope Guillen will turn it around this year.
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