Detroit, MI
Tigers cough up lead in ninth, fall to Royals in series finale
Detroit — In baseball, victory can always be given or taken away with one swing. During a season, a team can go through being on both sides of this situation multiple times.
For the Tigers, they found themselves on both sides within 24 hours. After snatching victory Saturday night with a walk-off hit, they watched as one swing turned the tides against them.
The Tigers allowed a two-out three-run homer in the top of the ninth, leaving Comerica Park on Sunday with a 3-2 loss to the Royals in their last game before a six-game road trip.
BOX SCORE: Royals 3, Tigers 2
MLB STANDINGS
It was MJ Melendez who left a hero for Kansas City, as his 362-foot home run to right field off reliever Shelby Miller gave the Royals the lead. Now the Tigers (53-60) leave home going 2-7 on the homestand, heading out to Seattle on Tuesday.
“We got to get on the plane, we’re going to head as far as you can go, get away and go to Seattle and we have a tough matchup there with elite pitching after the off-day,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said.
Miller was kept in the game even as Jason Foley was warming up in the bullpen, but Hinch said he wanted Miller to go through one more batter before bringing in Foley because he liked the matchup Miller had against the lefty Melendez. But the strategy doesn’t always goes as planned.
“Today’s emotion is obviously disappointment because if he pops that ball up, if he rolls over to first, if he swings and misses and the at-bat continues and we get him out,” Hinch said, “this is a completely different outcome, we’re getting on the plane with completely different happiness. It’s part of the game.”
Today wasn’t just about how the game ended for the Tigers. It was the major-league debut for Brant Hurter, who pitched three shutout innings with three strikeouts while allowing only two hits. Hurter pitched the longest out of any reliever Sunday, as the Tigers went to the bullpen, giving their starters an extra day of rest before the long road trip.
Hurter, combined with starter Alex Faedo and relievers Brenan Hanifee and Will Vest, pitched eight innings of shutout baseball against the Royals, allowing five hits with eight total strikeouts.
The final frame wasn’t the only opportunity for Kansas City (63-50), as it had a chance in the top of the sixth with two outs as Hunter Renfroe and Vinnie Pasquantino sat on first and second, respectively. But Hurter kept his cool, and left Paul DeJong striking out in just three pitches to keep the Royals scoreless.
Hurter’s fellow rookie teammates, such as Dillon Dingler and Justyn-Henry Malloy, knew what this moment meant for him.
“Brant was great. He was controlling the zone really well with pretty much every shape that he had, so I was super happy for him,” said Dingler, his catcher. “He had some great innings out of the ‘pen, and I know he’s probably floating right now, so I’m really looking forward to what he can do moving forward.”
Hurter and Henry-Malloy were teammates at Georgia Tech, so the young outfielder had more to say about his former and now current teammate, with both of them making the big leagues within two months of each other.
“I’m so happy that he’s here; he’s worked so hard and overcoming the injuries that he’s had in college, and for him to just be the same bulldog that I got to see in the ACC,” Henry-Malloy said. “It’s a true testament to him and him just being a bulldog, taking the ball and doing what he’s loved to do his entire life, and just doing what he’s always been good at.”
“I thought he handled the emotions of today extremely well; there’s only one first day and making him wait was probably emotional for him, but the minute he started to warm up, I heard his family yelling behind home plate,” Hinch said. “All that is really awesome, the loss is gonna overshadow the joy that kid should feel about being a big leaguer.”
Although the score doesn’t show it, this ended up being a difficult start for Royals pitcher Michael Wacha, who gave up seven hits and two earned runs in six innings of work. More damage could’ve been done from the Tiger bats, like when the bases were loaded with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, but Zack McKinstry grounded out and couldn’t extend the lead.
“It shouldn’t have been 2-0; we had opportunities,” Hinch said. “Whether the two-out hit, you can never bank on, but we had ’em with the bases loaded and couldn’t quite find that outfield grass, and the first-and-third double plays. (Wacha) came up with big pitches, and it looked like he was right on the edge both in the strike zone but just in the game of it turning our way and us separating a little bit.”
“It’s going to happen against us, and it’s going to happen for us,” Henry-Malloy said about losing the close game. “Just taking it with a grain of salt, going into the next day and just being positive and coming back in and trying to win another ball game the next day.”
Kameron Goodwill is a freelance writer.
Pistons vs Magic Game 1 reaction, lessons learned and what must change
Omari Sankofa II, Shawn Windsor and special guest Bryce Simon react to Detroit Pistons’ Game 1 NBA playoff loss to Orlando Magic, April 19, 2026, at Little Caesars Arena.
How in the world did things get so bad so fast for the Detroit Pistons?
In just one outing in the 2026 NBA playoffs, they went from top-seeded darlings of the Eastern Conference to punching bags punked by an 8-seed short on rest but long on resilience and toughness.
“I would say they ‘outphysical-ed’ us today,” Pistons wing Ausar Thompson said after the Orlando Magic stole Game 1 of the first-round NBA playoff series, 112-101, at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, April 19. “One, because they got more rebounds than us. They forced more turnovers.”
Yes, this was always going to be a physical series. Though you would think the Pistons, owners of the NBA’s second-best defense and playing at home, would have a sizable advantage.
It also should have helped them that they were coming off six days’ rest, as opposed to the Magic coming off winning a play-in game just 47 hours earlier.
It didn’t help that Pistons star Cade Cunnigham was playing in just his fourth game since suffering a collapsed lung and missing 11 games. He scored a game-high 39 points, but he didn’t operate as smoothly as usual, with just four assists (far off his 9.9-assist season average) while committing three turnovers.
Another indictment of the Pistons’ worrisome play: Tobias Harris (19 points) was Cunningham’s only teammate who scored in double digits. Meanwhile, all five Magic staters did so, led by Paolo Banchero’s 23 points on 8-for-15 shooting.
And just like that, the Magic came out firing, scoring 35 points in the first quarter and never trailing.
“Yeah, just that we came out a little too tight, lax, whatever the word is, maybe both for some of us, but just didn’t come out with the right energy,” Cunningham said. “Gave them life further on. And then, you know, we had to deal with that for the rest of the game. We were better in stints, but can’t dig a hole like that.”
He’s right. The Pistons can’t dig a hole like that in Game 2 on Wednesday night. Because if they do, and they lose, the Magic would not only have homecourt advantage – they got that with Sunday’s victory – but could close out the series without another win in Detroit, with three of the next four games coming in Orlando.
That’s precisely what makes Game 2 a must-win game for the Pistons. It’s bad enough they lost the opener at LCA, where they were 31-9. But now they’ve let the Magic set a hard-edged tone in the kind of the game that could lead them to steal the series.
“I know that they feel great about this game,” Cunningham said. “This was a big win for them. They came in, they handled their business and stole one on the road. That’s what you want to do in the playoff series.
“So I’m sure that they feel great about that. Obviously, we’re sick about losing this one. It’s a long series, though. There’s no confidence dropped from us. We know that team. They know us. So it’ll be a long, fun series.”
Cunningham might be right, because the Pistons are arguably the better team. They have enough talent and more depth.
What the Pistons don’t have is the advantage of desperation. They had an excellent season from start to finish, closed with a 60-22 record, and wrapped up the East’s top seed on April 4.
The Magic, meanwhile, have been playing with fire (and not always the good kind) down the stretch, while their fifth-year coach, Jamahl Mosley, entered the postseason on the hottest of hot seats after his squad went 0-7 in road playoff games over the past two seasons.
To make things even worse, the Magic lost the regular-season finale to the Boston Celtics – well, their reserves, at least – to blow their chance at the 7-seed and homecourt in the play-in tournament. Then Orlando lost to the Philadelphia 76ers (on the road, of course) in the first play-in game before beating the Charlotte Hornets (in Orlando) to advance to a best-of-seven series – featuring four road games – vs. the Pistons.
Now, it looks like the Magic have found their form, as they routed the Hornets, 121-90, and stunned the Pistons. And just like that, Mosley went from hot seat to just plain hot.
Banchero wouldn’t go so far as to say the victory set up his team to steal the series, but he didn’t deny it was exactly the kind of start Orlando needed.
“It’s just a good win for us as a team getting it on the road against a great team and 1-seed,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we got to come back Wednesday, you know, reciprocate it, you know?
“They’re not going to lay down. They’re going to turn it up. So we’ve got to be ready for that. And it’s just one-game-at-a-time mentality, you know? That’s what it’s got to be. It’s the first of four.”
Yes, it’s just the first of four wins the Magic needs to advance. If the Pistons don’t find an answer quickly, the math – and hardly anyone else – won’t be on their side when they head to Central Florida this weekend.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
After getting absolutely annihilated in his previous start on Monday in Minnesota to the tune of 11 runs in just 1.2 innings, Garrett Crochet is set to retake the mound today and convince us all that everything will be fine as far as he and his health are concerned.
Unfortunately, he won’t just be battling the Tigers. Mother Nature is once again destined to play a roll in today’s match up, and here’s how the radar looks inside of an hour from first pitch:
The good news is the initial batch of heavier precipitation has moved out and east of Boston, but more unsettled weather still lurks to the west ahead of a slow moving front. That mess will push through eastern Massachusetts over the next several hours, filling in the current dry slot. While this incoming precipitation won’t be as heavy as what fell at times earlier today, it will come attached with colder and windier conditions, so a miserable weather game lies ahead (if they even try and play through it at all — The Yankees did not and waited around for three hours before starting their game against the Royals at 4:20pm). The other option will be to just wait until after sunset when it will be dryer, but still very cold and windy.
When they do get started, today’s lineup includes Roman Anthony leading off in leftfield, Andruw Monasterio at first base, and Jarren Duran, Masataka Yoshida, and Marcelo Mayer all starting on the bench with an opposing left-handed starter on the mound in Framber Valdez for Detroit.
OTM’s own pitching guru Jacob Roy will be around later to handle the postgame wrap and tell us if we should should be freaking out or breathing a sigh a relief when it comes to Crochet.
The Pistons have made recent moves to add more shooting, but still don’t have anyone quite as lethal as former Detroit guard Luke Kennard. On Saturday night, Kennard had a brilliant start to his postseason with 27 uber-efficient points for the Lakers in a win against the Rockets. His level of 3-point accuracy is something the Pistons have desperately been seeking all season long to bolster their offense.
Luke Kennard’s shooting makes him a dangerous playoff performer
Kennard was originally drafted to Detroit with the 17th pick of the 2017 Draft. The Pistons have plenty of draft regrets from that general era of team history, but picking Kennard has never been one of them. Despite any other weaknesses he may have, his strength as a shooter has always been enough to offset them.
In terms of pure 3-point percentage, Kennard is one of the best shooters in NBA history. He averages 44% behind the arc for his career, and shot a blistering 48% this season – the best mark in the league. Given his incredible track record, it’s not exactly a shocker to see him shoot 5-of-5 from three en route to 27 points in Game 1.
Not only is Kennard obviously an excellent standstill shooter, but he’s also a master of getting himself open with his movement. On Saturday night, he was able to play off LeBron James perfectly for a few easy looks. After that, he caught enough of a rhythm to create 3-point looks for himself, even in transition.
A player like Kennard is easily capable of turning an entire playoff game when he gets hot. In a close series, that one game where Kennard hits several threes can be all the difference his team needs to advance. If the Lakers do manage to win this series, even without Luka Doncic or Austin Reaves, Kennard’s shooting will be a major reason why.
The Pistons could use someone like Kennard
Kennard would be a perfect marginal addition for the Pistons that only makes them better without taking anything away from the team. To be fair, the Pistons do have two shooters who have been hot recently in Duncan Robinson and Kevin Huerter. But having more than one respected shooter on the court at a time is often necessary to maintain a solid offense in today’s NBA.
Given the Pistons’ current lack of shooting, any additional shooters are welcome. And Kennard is understandably one of the most feared shooters in the league, capable of bending defenses just by the threat of him taking a three. Rolling him out on the Pistons would surely open up more lanes for Detroit’s stars to attack the paint and score easier points.
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