Thu Apr 3 16:57:03 2008

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Greinke, Royals complete sweep of Tigers

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Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - Zack Greinke hurled seven solid innings, and Alex Gordon and Mark Teahen both homered as Kansas City completed a three-game sweep of Detroit by downing the Tigers, 4-1, at Comerica Park.

Greinke (1-0) allowed just one run on six hits for the Royals, who had captured the first two games of the series by scores of 5-4 and 4-0 and are now 3-0 to start the season for the first time since reeling off nine straight wins to kick off the 2003 campaign.

"I wasn't really that good today," Greinke said. "I just gave them too many good pitches to hit. That's were (catcher) John (Buck) came in. He told me to settle down and mix my pitches. I give him a lot of credit for that."

Gordon hit a two-run homer for Kansas City, while Teahen was 2-for-4 with a solo shot.

Brandon Inge was 2-for-3 with a solo homer for the Tigers, who have lost their first three games of the year for the first time since 2003, when the club dropped nine straight to open the season en route to an AL-high 119 losses.

"We stunk," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Pretty simple. It's the manager's responsibility to have the club ready and we don't look like we are."

Jeremy Bonderman (0-1) surrendered four runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings en route to the loss.

"I threw the ball, just made two mistakes," Bonderman said. "Other than that, I threw the ball well. I kept the ball down. I moved it around up and down the strike zone. I made a couple mistakes and they punished me for it."

The Royals jumped on top thanks to the long ball in the fourth inning. Mark Grudzielanek led off the frame with a single and Gordon followed by depositing his second home run of the young season over the wall in left- center.

"I just wanted to make contact and help the club in anyway that I could," Gordon said. "It was a change-up up and away, I just swung and got in up into the wind and it went out."

Kansas City added another run with two outs in the sixth when Teahen turned on a Bonderman fastball and drove it over the wall in right.

The Royals added another run in the seventh. Joey Gathright singled up the middle and swiped second with two down in the frame. Jose Guillen then came through with an RBI single to left that made it a 4-0 game.

The Tigers finally got to Greinke and broke an 18-inning scoreless streak during the home-half of the seventh when Inge slammed his first home run of the year over the fence in left.

Ramon Ramirez and Joakim Soria restored order for Kansas City, however, and finished things with an inning of scoreless relief apiece. Soria pitched a perfect ninth to earn his second save.

Game Notes

Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera was scratched from the game with a sore left quad and is being listed as day-to-day. Acquired from Florida in the offseason and signed to a seven-year contract extension through the 2015 season, Cabrera homered in his first game as a Tiger on Monday. He is 1-for-8, though, in his first two games. Inge moved from center field to third to take over for Cabrera, while Clete Thomas played center...Greinke has faced the Tigers 14 times (11 starts) over his career and is 7-3 against them...Bonderman is 9-6 lifetime against the Royals in 20 games, 18 of which have been starts.