Boyd gets standing ovation; Tigers top Royals

Left-handed starting pitcher Matt Boyd walked off the field to a standing ovation after allowing one run over seven innings in his debut for the Tigers. He went on to earn his first major league win, outdueling Johnny Cueto of the Royals.

Boyd was given the lineup card after the game and couldn’t hold back his excitement following a 2-1 win over the Royals on Wednesday night at Comerica Park.

“It was just awesome,” Boyd said. “Told Daniel Norris, it feels like we’re home. It was rocking tonight. It was awesome and it meant a lot that all the fans did that. It was sweet. Never going to forget it.”

Daniel Norris, who like Boyd was part of the deal that sent David Price to the Blue Jays last week, won his debut with the Tigers on Sunday in Baltimore.

Boyd fared far better in his first start with the Tigers than he did in his first two MLB starts with the Blue Jays earlier this season.

Boyd allowed one run on seven hits with no walks over seven innings with two strikeouts.

Boyd, 24, had gone 0-2 with a 14.85 ERA in a pair of starts for the Blue Jays earlier this season. Boyd gave up four runs on nine hits in his MLB debut against the Rangers on June 27. He didn’t make it out of the first inning in his second start, giving up seven runs on six hits on June 2 against the Red Sox.

Boyd said the few times he was starting to lose it, catcher James McCann “got me back in line.”

Boyd was also appreciative of the large outfield of Comerica Park, which accounted for so many flyball outs.

“I tend to get more flyballs than strikeouts,” Boyd said. “This park is fun. It’s awesome to throw in. It’s a baseball stadium. It’s sweet. It’s sweet looking up there at those big lights, all the iron. It was awesome. Today was special.”

The Tigers gave him leads of 1-0 in the third and 2-1 in the fourth inning.

Triples led to each of the game’s runs. The teams traded two-out RBI triples for the first two runs of the game.

Tyler Collins hit a double to left in the third for the Tigers’ first hit off Cueto. Collins came home on a two-out RBI triple by Anthony Gose that went over the head of Lorenzo Cain.

The Royals tied the game at 1 in the top of the fourth. Boyd had retired six in a row before giving up a single to center to Eric Hosmer. Switch-hitter Kendrys Morales followed with an RBI triple to left-center.

Ian Kinsler led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple and gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead when Victor Martinez grounded out to first.

Cueto allowed two runs on five hits and two walks over seven innings with two strikeouts for the Royals.

The Royals stranded a runner at third in the top of the fifth. Alex Rios singled and advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw by Boyd with one out. Omar Infante grounded out to second, then Alcides Escobar flied out to right.

The Royals stranded another runner at third in the sixth. With two outs, Hosmer hit a single and went to third on a bloop single by Morales that a diving Collins couldn’t snag in left. But Boyd got left-handed hitter Mike Moustakas to fly out to center.

“Leaving runners on base is always solid,” Boyd said. “Really was kind of feeling for my breaking balls, both of them throughout the whole game. I didn’t really have them until that last inning. Really just kind of searching for it.”

He said he had to bear down when he was able to only throw two pitches for strikes.

“We made pitches when we needed to and the guys played great defensively,” Boyd said.

The bullpen came up big as Bruce Rondon pitched a scoreless inning of relief in the eighth, allowing one hit and two strikeouts.

“He seemed to have a little bit of an attitude on the mound, like he expected to get the hitters out and that’s what I like to see,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said of Rondon. “I wouldn’t say I’ve seen it consistently, but I’ve seen it the last couple of outings.

“It’s tough to teach a pitcher to expect to get the hitters out. Sometimes they have to learn it. But it looked to me in his last couple outings he expected to get the hitters out.”

Lefty Blaine Hardy got the first two hitters out in the ninth. Alex Wilson gave up a single to Salvador Perez before Rios flied out to left to end the game.

“Today it just set up we had Morales and Moustakas coming up,” Ausmus said. “If there’s a righty between there, I’m not sure I do that, depending on who the hitters are. It set up well to use Hardy and then they had three righties behind that, where Wilson could come in.”

Wilson earned his second save.

“He’s been our most consistent piece and he’s pitched in a lot of roles,” Ausmus said. “And quite frankly he’s earned the opportunity with the way our bullpen personnel is set up now to finish games.”