DETROIT _ Matthew Boyd continues to make it look easy.
The Detroit Tigers' left-hander posted his sixth consecutive quality start on Friday night in a 4-3 win over the Royals.
Boyd threw seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits. He struck out nine batters and walked one.
This season, Boyd has a 3.05 ERA and .0992 WHIP. His 57 strikeouts are tied for third-most in the major leagues.
Boyd was backed early by the Tigers' offense in the win.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Tigers put the first three runners on base, capped by a Miguel Cabrera RBI single to center field. Two batters later, Ronny Rodriguez drove in a run on a groundout and then scored on a wild pitch.
On the play, Rodriguez slid into home plate a shoelace before Royals right-hander Jorge Lopez placed the tag.
The three-run lead was enough for Boyd, who continues to establish himself closer to the top of the rotation than the middle.
Rodriguez added an RBI double in the bottom of the third and Cabrera went 3-for-4.
Joe Jimenez pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Shane Greene picked up his 13th save of the season.
Once again, Boyd allowed little damage. And once again, he struck out plenty of batters. There were a couple of hiccups _ he put the leadoff men on base in three consecutive innings, starting in the second _ but all but one were quickly eliminated. One of them, the speedy Billy Hamilton, was picked off at first base.
The Tigers didn't give Lopez an opportunity to settle in. Jeimer Candelario walked, Nicholas Castellanos singled, and then Cabrera drove him home to begin the game. But the biggest play in the first inning came when Rodriguez scampered home from third base on a wild pitch. The pitch trickled some 10 feet away from catcher Martin Maldonado and could have went either way, but Rodriguez's aggressive baserunning paid off. After the Royals challenged the safe call, the play was confirmed. The first inning gave Boyd a nice early lead to work with.
Things have gone back to normal in the back-end of the Tigers' bullpen. After being temporarily demoted from his set-up man spot two weeks ago, Jimenez is pitching like he was the first half of last season, when he earned an American League All-Star Game appearance. He was overpowering in the eighth and Greene, fresh off being named the AL Reliever of the Month for March and April, allowed a solo home run and a double but picked up the save. He hasn't blown one yet this season.
