Behind three RBIs from third baseman Mike Moustakas, the Royals took three of four from the weekend series against the Tigers with a 4-2 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
The Tigers left nine runners on base and only had one hit with runners in scoring position, while the Royals went 2-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left only two runners on.
Moustakas staked the Royals to a 3-0 lead after the first three innings.
In the first, Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly that scored Whit Merrifield and gave the Royals a 1-0 lead.
Then with two outs and runners on second and third in the third inning, Moustakas hit a double to right-center to score Merrifield and Jorge Soler to make it 3-0.
Salvador Perez then gave Kansas City a 4-0 lead when he singled home Moustakas to complete a rally that started with two outs and nobody on base.
The Tigers got on the board in the fourth on a solo home run by John Hicks to cut the Kansas City lead to 4-1, and then Detroit cut its deficit to 4-2 in the eighth on an RBI single by Hicks.
However, the Tigers stranded runners on second and first in the eighth and then went were retired in order by Royals closer Kelvin Herrera in the top of the ninth. Herrera notched his seventh save.
Jakob Junis (4-2) pitched seven innings of two-run ball to get the win for the Royals, striking out eight, walking one and scattering eight hits.
Tigers starter Matt Boyd (1-3) struck out five, walked one and allowed six hits and four runs in seven innings.
Detroit outhit Kansas City, 10-7.
--Field Level Media
Detroit | Kansas City | |
Matthew Boyd | Player | Jakob Junis |
Loss | W/L | Win |
7.0 | IP | 7.0 |
5 | Strikeouts | 8 |
6 | Hits | 8 |
5.14 | ERA | 2.57 |
Detroit | Kansas City | |
John Hicks | Player | Jorge Soler |
3 | Hits | 2 |
2 | RBI | 0 |
1 | HR | 0 |
6 | TB | 2 |
.750 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Detroit | 10 | 1 | 14 | .278 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Kansas City | 7 | 0 | 9 | .250 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 |