By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
Royals 6, Tigers 1 – The Kansas City Royals held the Tigers to three hits in Tuesday night’s win over Detroit.
The Tigers, who are now six games out of first place in the American League Central Division, are currently on a two-game slide and are looking to avoid being swept tomorrow against the Royals.
The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead with runs in the third and fifth inning.
Detroit responded with its lone run on a solo homer to centerfield by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who played first base for the injured Miguel Cabrera.
Kansas City closed out the scoring with a run in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth frame.
The Royals were led by Raul Mondesi, Alex Gordon and Kendrys Morales with a home run each, while Lorenzo Cain chipped in with a double.
Detroit’s starting pitcher Justin Verlander took a loss, allow three earned runs on five hits while striking out six batters in seven plus innings.
The Tigers are now 63-56 on the season, and are two games back of the Boston Red Sox for the final playoff spot.
Record: 63-56
2nd Place in AL Central Division (5.5 games behind first-place Cleveland)
3 games behind Boston for the last playoff spot
Magic # to clinch a playoff spot: 48
Magic # to clinch an AL Central Division title: 52
Next Game: 08/17/2016 vs Kansas City Royals 7:08 p.m. @ Comerica Park
Hitting stats: Jarrod Saltalamacchia HR (11) RBI (34), J.D. Martinez 2B (24).
Pitching stats: Justin Verlander L (12-7) 7 IP 4 H 5 R 3 ER 1 BB 6 K.
