Tigers 6, Royals 5
Miguel Cabrera homered to start the bottom of the ninth inning to give Detroit a dramatic victory over Kansas City.
Cabrera’s sixth career walkoff blast came off Aaron Crow (7-4) and easily cleared the right-field wall. The shot made a winner out of Joaquin Benoit (3-0) as Detroit maintained its six-game lead over Cleveland in the American League Central while increasing its advantage to 7 1/2 over the Royals.
Detroit tallied first-inning runs on a double by Prince Fielder and a single by Victor Martinez and increased its lead to 3-0 on Jose Iglesias’ suicide-squeeze bunt single in the second. Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez notched RBI singles in the third and the Royals tied the game in the fourth on Yunel Escobar’s run-scoring double.
Cabrera’s run-scoring double into the right-field corner gave Detroit a 4-3 lead in the fourth before Perez smacked a tying homer to left in the seventh off Tigers reliever Drew Smyly. Fielder homered in the bottom of the frame to put the Tigers back ahead before Chris Getz drilled a run-scoring single in the eighth to tie the game at 5-5.
Detroit’s Doug Fister allowed three runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings. Royals starter Wade Davis gave up four runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings as Kansas City remained five games out of the second wild-card berth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Kansas City 3B Mike Moustakas went 2-for-3 after missing the previous five games with a calf injury. … Tigers manager Jim Leyland and C Brayan Pena were ejected in the fourth inning for disputing a call by home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski. … Royals INF Miguel Tejada was suspended for 105 games because of a positive drug test for using amphetamines.