DETROIT — The Tigers clawed back from a five-run deficit and briefly held the lead, but the Kansas City Royals had the final surge in a 10-8 win Sunday afternoon at Comerica Park.
The Tigers (78-54) snapped a five-game winning streak but still hold a 10.5-game lead over the Royals (67-64) in the American League Central. They have now won five in a row on five different occasions this season but have yet to stretch a streak to six games.
Riley Greene gave Detroit a 1-0 lead with a leadoff homer in the second inning off Royals starter Seth Lugo.
Tigers starter Jack Flaherty retired the first eight batters he faced, but the game turned quickly in the third. Kansas City tagged him for seven consecutive hits — single, double, single, homer, single, double, double — to take a 6-1 lead.
“It was just an inning that wouldn’t end,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “A lot of the time that comes down to execution, sequencing, or just a good job by their guys. They pieced hits together, hard-hit balls that turned into damage, and it was relentless. I was glad Jack settled back down after that, and our guys fought back and made a game of it. But that was a rough inning.”
Flaherty pitched into the sixth inning and was charged with eight runs on nine hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
“The boys picked me up. We scored eight runs today. That should be a win,” Flaherty said. “That’s the only thought in my head: They picked me up. We score eight runs, it should be a win every time…I’ve got to do a better job.”
Jahmai Jones, who wasn’t in the original lineup but was added after Colt Keith felt under the weather, sparked the Tigers’ rally with a bases-clearing double in the fourth. Detroit surged ahead in the fifth with three more runs. Wenceel Pérez opened the inning with a solo shot, Dillon Dingler tied it with an RBI double off lefty reliever Angel Zerpa, and then scored the go-ahead run on Zach McKinstry’s single.
“When you’re behind 6-1, you need something big to happen,” Hinch said. “You need somebody to get on base, maybe a two-strike hit or a two-out hit to score multiple guys, or a homer to get you back in it. Jahmai provided that after a couple of really good at-bats.”
But the Royals answered with three runs in the sixth and another in the seventh. Reliever Brenan Hanifee, who had faced 232 batters this season and allowed only two homers, surrendered a first-pitch blast to Maikel Garcia.
The Tigers didn’t go quietly. Spencer Torkelson homered in the seventh to cut the deficit to two. Later that inning, McKinstry drove a ball to the base of the wall in right, missing a game-tying homer by just a few feet.
“We were a fraction of an inch from McKinstry tying the game with that ball to right,” Hinch said. “It was a good homestand, well played across the board. Could have been perfect if we played a little better today.”
Royals reliever John Schreiber, a former Tiger and Downriver native, retired all four batters he faced — three by strikeout — to earn the win.
Up next: The Tigers open a three-game series against the Athletics in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday at 10:05 p.m. Eastern time.
Ace lefty Tarik Skubal (11-3, 2.32 ERA) will start for the Tigers; the Athletics have not yet announced a starter.
The Tigers have won 17 of the last 20 games started by Skubal. In his last start on Aug. 19 against the Houston Astros, Skubal threw seven shutout innings and recorded his 200th career strikeout.
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