DETROIT -- Kansas City Royals reliever Yohan Pino's outing was short Friday night, and it was only sweet for the Detroit Tigers.

Pino threw just two pitches -- one that resulted in a double and the next winding up as a bunt single -- but his throw past first on the attempted sacrifice sailed way past the base and let in the run that gave Detroit a 6-5 victory over Kansas City in the first game of their weekend battle for first place in the American League Central.

Detroit is now up by a half-game entering Saturday.

"It was a lot of fun," said second baseman Ian Kinsler, whose bunt single got center fielder Anthony Gose home from second base. "It was a good crowd, a good night."

Gose sent Pino's first pitch into the right-field corner for a double. Kinsler laid down a perfect bunt to the right side of the mound, and he was nearly at first when Pino picked the ball up, whirled and threw blindly and wildly past first for an error.

"I just tried to be slow (bunting the ball), smooth and get it down the third-base line. I wanted to make sure the third baseman fielded the ball."

Pino, running away from his target, grabbed the ball instead and compounded his mistake by throwing the ball away.

"Two pitches were all I saw," Royals' manager Ned Yost said of his evaluation of Pino's performance. "The first pitch kind of ran back a little bit. The bunt was placed well.

"If we had gotten him out, we probably would have walked (first baseman Miguel) Cabrera and taken our chances with (designated hitter Victor) Martinez again. It was a really good game. We just didn't win it."

"Everything just kind of happened out of reaction," said Gose, who had two singles, a double and a walk and scored twice. "I was just running."

Pino (0-1) was just recalled from Triple-A Omaha to take the place of lefty Jason Vargas, who was placed on the disabled list with a sore left flexor tendon.

Right-hander Joakim Soria (2-0) earned the victory, pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

Left fielder Alex Gordon's one-out RBI single to center in the seventh inning gave Kansas City a 5-4 lead that only lasted until the bottom of the inning. Gose singled, stole second, went to third on catcher Salvador Perez's throwing error and scored when Victor Martinez hit into a force out.

Left-hander David Price gave up 13 hits in 6 1/3 innings with just one strikeout for Detroit, while his counterpart for Kansas City, right-hander Yordano Ventura, worked six innings, allowing eight hits and three walks and recording four strikeouts.

Ventura was making his first start after serving a seven-game suspension for his part in an April 23 incident in Chicago.

Price had to leave the game because he slipped on a bat backing up home plate on Gordon's RBI single and suffered a right hamstring injury.

"We'll know more Saturday," a somber Price said afterward. "I kind of hyper-extended my leg a little bit."

The home plate umpire, Alan Porter, threw a bat away as Price was running to cover home, but the southpaw slipped on it anyway.

The teams traded four-run innings to produce a tie game entering the fifth inning.

Kansas City trailed 4-0 before a two-run home run by Perez, his fourth, in the fourth cut Detroit's lead in half. Second baseman Omar Infante doubled and scored on a single by third baseman Christian Colon to make it 4-3 later in the inning. Shortstop Alcides Escobar singled, and Colon scored the tying run when Tigers' third baseman Nick Castellanos threw the ball into the stands after fielding a grounder hit by center fielder Lorenzo Cain.

The Tigers used a four-run second inning to jump on top. Third-base coach Dave Clark bravely waved two runners home from second on base hits in that inning, testing right fielder Paulo Orlando, and both scored.

Shortstop Andrew Romine's two-run ground single to right brought in the first two runs of the inning, and Kinsler's two-run single in the same place scored the others. Perez dropped the ball at the plate while Castellanos was scoring on Romine's hit, and Romine slid around Perez's late tag on Kinsler's hit.

"They had four broken bats and a couple of well-placed ground balls," Yost said.

NOTES: Kansas City made a flurry of player moves Friday. SS Alcides Escobar was activated off the seven-day concussion list and returned to the starting lineup, 3B Mike Moustakas was placed on the three-day bereavement/family emergency list, LHP Jason Vargas was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left flexor tendon strain, RHP Yohan Pino was recalled from Triple-A Omaha to replace him and C Francisco Pena was optioned to Omaha to create a spot for newly acquired C Drew Butera. ... Detroit SS Jose Iglesias was not in the starting lineup Friday for the second straight game. ... Tigers RHP Joe Nathan, out for the season following Tommy John and right flexor tendon surgeries, was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list. C Alex Avila was a late pregame scratch for Detroit due to a right forearm contusion.