Royals seek first win of second half behind surging Duffy
DETROIT -- Danny Duffy's recent stretch of strong starts can be traced to his time in the bullpen.
The Kansas City Royals left-hander has been the team's best starter since he rejoined the rotation in mid-May. He's 4-1 with a 3.11 ERA and a 6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio over those 11 starts. He'll make his first post-All-Star break start on Saturday night at Detroit.
"He's throwing a lot more strikes," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "That stint in the bullpen helped him. He figured out down there that he can be aggressive in the strike zone and have success. He's brought the bullpen mentality into a starting mentality."
Duffy has gone deep into games in his last three starts, reaching at least the seventh inning and coming up one out shy of a complete game against Philadelphia. He struck out 23 batters in those outings while issuing just one walk.
"My fastball command has been there," said Duffy, who is 3-6 with a 3.24 ERA in 15 career appearances against the Tigers. "If you have fastball command, you can afford not to be perfect with your secondary pitches. You can throw everything off your fastball. I'm just trying to keep it simple, just following Salvy (catcher Salvador Perez) and doing what the coaching staff thinks is best."
Duffy made 49 starts the previous two seasons but was often plagued by control issues. He issued 106 walks over 286 innings in those two seasons. He's only allowed 12 walks since rejoining the rotation, which has led to longer starts.
"It's been pretty gratifying to not be a guy who's gone five-and-dive, like I did for so long in my career," Duffy said. "I'm not saying that's not something that will ever happen again. But I have confidence when I take the ball that I'm going to do everything I can to hand the ball off to the bullpen late in the game."
Tigers right-hander Mike Pelfrey, who will oppose Duffy, has not gotten past the seventh inning in any of his 17 starts this season. He has kept his team in the game in two July outings. He held Tampa Bay and Toronto to one run apiece while going at least six innings. He's 1-3 with a 5.35 ERA in seven career starts against Kansas City.
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Detroit won the opener of the three-game series on Friday night, 4-2. That moved the second-place Tigers 1 1/2 games ahead of Kansas City, but both teams will have to chase down division leader Cleveland or shoot for a wild card.
"We were playing well (prior to the break), though we didn't do great in Toronto, but we've got to play better," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "The wild-card team is not going to be three games over .500, so we need to play better and it has to start now."
For the second straight game, the Tigers will be without left fielder Justin Upton. He was placed on the bereavement list on Thursday after a death in his family.
Tyler Collins was recalled from Triple-A Toledo on Friday as his fill-in and smacked a solo homer than started a three-run, seventh-inning rally.
"I'm really happy for him, contributing to a big win for us," winning pitcher Justin Verlander said of Collins. "It's great to see the ball leave the yard and see him do it."
