By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
Tigers 10, Royals 4 – The Tigers smacked six homers in Thursday win over the Kansas City Royals.
Victor Martinez paced Detroit with three of the home runs while Miguel Cabrera, Nick Castellanos and James McCann each added a homer.
Detroit’s starting pitcher Justin Verlander picked up his seventh win of the season, allowing four runs on eight hits while striking out seven batters in seven innings.
The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in first before teams exchanged a run in the second to give Kansas City a 3-1 advantage.
The Tigers tied the game 3-3 with a pair of runs in the fourth before the Royals grabbed a 4-3 lead with a run in the fifth.
Detroit closed the scoring with seven unanswered runs with three in both the seventh and eighth innings and one in the ninth.
Kansas City was led in a losing effort by Brett Eibner with his first career home run and two RBIs while Lorenzo Cain chipped in with a double and RBI.
The Tigers are now 34-32 on the season, good for third place in the American League Central Division behind the first-place Cleveland Indians.
Detroit will look to win the second game of the four-game series with a victory over the Royals on Friday night.
Record: 34-32
3rd Place in AL Central Division (1.5 games behind first-place Cleveland)
2.5 games behind Toronto for last Wild Card spot
Magic # to clinch a playoff spot: 98
Magic # to clinch an AL Central Division title: 99
Next Game: 06/16/2016 @ Kansas City Royals 8:15 p.m. @ Kaufman Stadium
Hitting stats: Victor Martinez 3 HR (12) 3 RBI (38), Miguel Cabrera HR (13) 2 RBI (39), Nick Castellanos HR (13) RBI (39), James McCann HR (4) 2 RBI (18), Ian Kinsler RBI (45), Justin Upton RBI (23).
Pitching stats: Justin Verlander W (7-5) 7 IP 8 H 4 R 4 ER 1 BB 7 K.
