Victor Martinez looks like he might be finding his groove in the Motor City.
The Tigers’ big offseason acquisition belted a three-run first inning double off Kansas City starter Kyle Davies and never looked back in a 5-2 opening day win.
Jhonny Peralta also swatted a run-scoring double for the Tigers in a four-run first inning that took Davies 40 pitches to complete. Davies (0-1) gave up five runs on six hits in just 3.2 innings of work.
Max Scherzer (2-0) picked up his second win of the year, allowing one run on seven hits in six innings. Brayan Villarreal, Daniel Schlereth, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde closed out the final three innings for the Tigers, who improved to 3-4.
The Royals got runs in the third and seventh innings to trim the Tigers’ lead to 5-2, but this time the bullpen held. Last night, the Tigers held a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning against Baltimore but gave up five runs in the inning en route to a 9-5 loss.