Jorge Soler broke the Kansas City single-season home run record with his 39th of the season, and Ryan O'Hearn hit a walk-off homer in the ninth inning to give the Royals a 6-5 win over the visiting Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
Soler hammered a three-run shot in the third inning, passing Mike Moustakas' previous club record set in 2017.
O'Hearn won it with his first career walk-off home run, a one-out shot off Zac Reininger (0-1).
Kansas City's Ian Kennedy blew a save for the first time in 15 chances when he allowed an RBI single to Ronny Rodriguez in the top of the ninth. However, Alex Gordon's throw from left to the plate was in time to keep Willi Castro from scoring the go-ahead run on the play.
Kennedy (2-2) emerged with the win despite allowing a run on three hits in his lone inning.
The Tigers got a run in the third on an RBI single by Grayson Greiner, scoring Travis Demeritte. Victor Reyes then singled, setting up a potential big inning, but the Tigers' offense stalled.
The Royals answered with three in the third on Soler's blast, scoring Nick Dini and Whit Merrifield. Soler reached 100 RBIs on the season, the first Royal to reach that total since Eric Hosmer in 2016.
The Tigers drew within one in the seventh. Greiner stroked a two-out single, then scored on a double to the wall in left-center by Reyes, the third of his four hits. Reyes now has five straight multi-hit games during which he is 13-for-22 (.591).
Detroit's Miguel Cabrera led off the eighth with a single over shortstop, and Gordon Beckham entered as a pinch runner. Jeimer Candelario then doubled off the glove of right fielder Merrifield, sending Beckham to third with one out.
Christin Stewart followed with a single to right to drive in the tying run. Brandon Dixon then drove in Candelario with a sacrifice fly.
The Royals retook the lead in the bottom of the eighth on a wild pitch. Adalberto Mondesi walked with one out, and Soler singled to right. Both runners stole bases, and Gordon drove in the tying run with an infield hit.
--Field Level Media
Detroit | Kansas City | |
Daniel Norris | Player | Mike Montgomery |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
3.0 | IP | 5.2 |
3 | Strikeouts | 5 |
4 | Hits | 6 |
9.00 | ERA | 1.59 |
Detroit | Kansas City | |
Victor Reyes | Player | Jorge Soler |
4 | Hits | 3 |
1 | RBI | 3 |
0 | HR | 1 |
6 | TB | 6 |
.800 | Avg | 1.000 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Detroit | 14 | 0 | 18 | .368 | 15 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Kansas City | 9 | 2 | 16 | .290 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 |