DETROIT — Zach McKinstry fueled a four-run seventh inning as the Detroit Tigers rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 in the series opener Friday night at Comerica Park.
The Tigers (77-53) have won four straight and eight of their last nine. They now lead the Royals (66-63) by 10 1/2 games in the American League Central.
With the score tied at 3, McKinstry led off the seventh with a shot back to the mound that rebounded off Royals reliever Bailey Falter. McKinstry raced down to first to beat out an infield single.
It was a painful start to a bad inning for Falter.
Javier Baez followed with a well-struck single to right field. McKinstry aggressively — very aggressively — rounded second and bolted for third. The throw from right fielder Randal Grichuk looked like it had a chance, but it skipped away from third baseman Maikel Garcia. Without missing a beat, McKinstry popped up and raced home, diving headfirst into the plate with the go-ahead run.
Andy Ibáñez, Gleyber Torres and Wenceel Pérez followed with RBI singles to extend the lead.
For much of the night, the Tigers’ only offense against Royals starter Ryan Hergert came from McKinstry. He blasted a solo home run in the third, then lined his 10th triple of the season into the right-field corner in the fifth.
McKinstry was stranded, but the Tigers broke through in the following inning.
With two outs, Hergert gave way to lefty Angel Zerpa to face Riley Greene. Greene launched his 30th homer, and just his third off a lefty, a 435-foot drive to right-center that tied the game at 3.
Tigers starter Casey Mize had an unusual outing. Six days after recording 10 strikeouts, his most in more than a year, he didn’t register a single strikeout in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed three runs on nine hits and a walk, all the damage coming in the third inning.
Bobby Witt Jr., who had grounded into only three double plays in 550 plate appearances entering the game, hit into two costly ones. The first came in the opening inning to help Mize escape a jam. The second came in the seventh after rookie Drew Sommers, making his MLB debut, walked back-to-back batters. Hinch called on Kyle Finnegan, who got Witt to roll into a 4-6-3 double play and then retired Vinnie Pasquantino to end the inning with the score still tied.
The Tigers didn’t notch their first strikeout until Finnegan fanned Adam Frazier in the eighth. Finnegan worked two scoreless innings.
Will Vest entered to pitch the ninth, as manager A.J. Hinch was taking no chances even with a four-run lead. With two outs, Vinnie Pasquantino crushed a homer deep down the right-field line to cut the lead to two runs. Pasquantino has homered in five straight games. Vest came back to strike out Maikel Garcia to end the game.
This story will be updated.
BOX SCORE
Up next: The series continues on Saturday at 6:10 p.m.
Tigers right-hander Chris Paddack (4-11, 5.10 ERA) will face Royals righty Michael Wacha (8-9, 3.34).
Paddack, acquired from the Minnesota Twins at the trade deadline, has a 5.91 ERA in four starts since joining the Tigers. He’s struck out 13 and walked four in 21 1/3 innings.
Wacha, 34, is in the second season of a three-year, $51 million deal he signed with the Royals. He last started at Comerica Park on April 20, allowing a couple of runs in 5 2/3 innings in the Royals’ 4-3 win.
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