It would not have been hard Wednesday against Kansas City for Tigers rookie starter Matt Boyd to improve on his last outing. All he had do for that was record one out, which somehow he could not manage to do on July 2 against Boston.
But Boyd didn't merely perform better. He was excellent in taming the Royals on just one run in seven innings for his first major league victory. Boyd allowed seven hits with no walks and two strikeouts.
His lone hiccup was an RBI triple by Kendrys Morales in the fourth. He escaped jams in the fifth and sixth before retiring the last four batters he faced.
Boyd nearly sliced his ERA in half with his fine performance. It shrunk from 14.85 to 7.90.