DETROIT (AP) — This time, the Kansas City Royals had enough hitting and pitching.

Ian Kennedy pitched three-run ball into the eighth inning, and the Royals stopped a five-game slide by holding off the Detroit Tigers for a 4-3 win on Friday night.

Alex Gordon had three hits for the Royals, who hit four homers in 11-8 loss in the series opener. Rosell Herrera had two hits and drove in a run.

“We made a couple mistakes on 0-2 pitches, and they cost us runs,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Other than that, our pitching was fantastic.”

The sloppy Tigers committed three errors while losing for the eighth time in 11 games.

“We just played terrible baseball,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We made errors and we made bad decisions.”

Kennedy (3-8) won his second straight start, permitting two earned runs and seven hits in seven-plus innings. He struck out six and walked none.

“I’ve been executing in the last three games — that’s literally the only thing that has changed,” Kennedy said. “I’m throwing good pitches, and in meaningful spots, I’m throwing strikes.”

Wily Peralta worked a shaky ninth for his 12th save. Ronny Rodriguez led off with an infield single, but James McCann bunted into a 1-6 forceout at second.

“Wily’s more athletic than he looks,” Yost said. “He bounded off the mound and made a great throw to second.”

Jeimer Candelario then drew a pinch-hit walk before Peralta struck out Dawel Lugo and Jim Adduci.

Detroit left-hander Francisco Liriano (5-11) was charged with four runs, one earned, and six hits in six innings. He has a 1.88 ERA in his last four starts.

Kansas City jumped in front on Detroit’s first defensive mistake. With one out in the first, Adalberto Mondesi singled and took off on a 1-1 pitch to Gordon.

Gordon looped a single to shallow left, and Mondesi took a big turn at third and kept going when rookie Christin Stewart lobbed the ball into second.

“I kept my head up on the play, and I’m always looking to make a play,” Mondesi said. “When I saw he was going to make the short throw, I went hard.”

Stewart, a hitting prospect not known for solid defense, was making his 12th major league appearance.

“That will be a learning experience for the kid,” Gardenhire said. “He’s got to be quicker getting to the ball, and he’s got to get rid of it. If he makes a faster play and hits the cut-off man, everything is fine.”

Gordon added an RBI single in the third, and the Royals scored two more runs in the fourth, aided by errors by first baseman Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Stewart.

“We’re going to be working on defense a lot in spring training,” Gardenhire said. “We’ll have our whole group together and we’re going to improve some of these things.”

Rodriguez homered in the fifth for the Tigers, and Nicholas Castellanos doubled home a run in the sixth.

Kennedy left after Pete Kozma reached on an error, and Castellanos made it 4-3 with a two-out double off Kevin McCarthy. Victor Martinez, playing in his next-to-last major league game, grounded out to first to end the inning.

Martinez received an ovation before the at-bat.

“I wish I could have gotten a hit there for the fans,” he said. “They are like a family to me. Families fight, and there have been some times when they let us know we weren’t playing well, but they are always here for us.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Tigers: With INFs Niko Goodrum (quad) and Candelario (back) still bothered by injuries, Harold Castro was promoted from Triple-A Toledo. Castro hadn’t arrived by game time, and the Tigers ended up with Saltalamacchia playing first base for the first time since 2016.

ETIQUETTE QUESTION

In the eighth inning, McCarthy rode in on the Comerica Park bullpen cart and didn’t know what to do at the end of the ride.

“I had never done that before, so I wasn’t sure if I should tip the driver,” he said.

ONE MORE GAME FOR MARTINEZ

Martinez announced before Friday’s game he will finish his 16-season career on Saturday against the Royals. Martinez will sit out Sunday’s series finale and accompany the team on its final road trip without playing.

“I feel like I owe it to the fans to have my final at-bats here,” said Martinez, who will be honored in a pregame ceremony.

UP NEXT

The teams play the third game of their series on Saturday night, with Detroit’s Jordan Zimmermann (7-8, 4.41 ERA) facing Jakob Junis (8-12, 4.42 ERA).

— Associated Press —

DETROIT (AP) — Christin Stewart hit his first two big-league homers and drove in six runs Thursday night, leading the Detroit Tigers past the Kansas City Royals 11-8.

Stewart, a September call-up playing in his 11th game, became the first Tigers rookie to drive in six runs in a game since Ryan Raburn had seven against the Chicago White Sox on July 25, 2007.

Six Tigers had at least two hits and Detroit snapped a seven-game home losing streak. Kansas City has lost five in a row.

The Tigers led 9-5 after two innings as the teams combined for five home runs, six doubles, a triple and a double steal. By that point, both starting pitchers were gone. Detroit’s Matthew Boyd allowed five runs while getting four outs. Kansas City’s Jorge Lopez (2-5) gave up seven runs without getting an out in the second.

Zac Reininger (1-0), the second of seven Detroit pitchers, picked up his first major-league victory.

Jorge Bonifacio gave the Royals the lead with a three-run homer off Boyd in the first, but the Tigers came back with four in the bottom of the inning. Stewart hit a two-run homer to right and Nicholas Castellanos hit the next pitch to nearly same spot.

Grayson Greiner made it 4-3 with a sacrifice fly later in the inning, and the runs kept coming in the second. Brian Goodwin gave the Royals a 5-4 lead with a two-run homer in the top of the inning, but Stewart made it five RBI in two innings with a three-run home run in the Tigers’ second.

Glenn Sparkman replaced Lopez and gave up a triple to Castellanos and Victor Martinez’s RBI double before getting the first out of the second inning. Greiner picked up his second RBI with a two-out single, giving the Tigers a 9-5 lead.

Hunter Dozier hit a two-run homer off Reininger in the fourth, pulling the Royals within 9-7, but the next four relievers combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings as Detroit maintained the lead into the ninth inning.

Stewart walked with the bases loaded in the seventh inning for his sixth RBI.

Adalberto Mondesi homered off Shane Greene in the ninth to make it 11-8.

V-MART KEEPS HIS RECORD

In the first inning, Victor Martinez lined a ball into the right-center field gap — the perfect place for a triple at spacious Comerica Park — but his lack of speed turned it into a double. With nine games left in his final season, Martinez has 3,937 plate appearances for the Tigers without hitting a triple, the most in franchise history. Aaron Robinson is second with 868.

UP NEXT

The teams continue their four-game series on Friday night, with Ian Kennedy (2-8, 4.73) starting against Detroit’s Francisco Liriano (5-10, 4.54).

— Associated Press —

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Chris Archer pitched seven strong innings, and the Pittsburgh Pirates completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 2-1 win on Wednesday night.

In his most impressive start since being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays on July 31, Archer (5-8) allowed one run on six hits with eight strikeouts and one walk. The right-hander made it out of the sixth inning for the first time in nine starts for the Pirates, who traded for him in hopes of making a playoff run.

The Pirates remain marooned in fourth place in the NL Central despite a five-game winning streak that’s moved them three games over .500.

Felipe Vazquez allowed one walk in the ninth but earned his 35th save one day after he let a 1-0 lead slip away — his fifth blown save of the season. The Pirates went on to win 2-1 in 11 innings on Tuesday night.

Adam Frazier broke a 1-1 tie with a homer to right-center with two outs in the fifth inning off rookie right-hander Heath Fillmyer (3-2). It was Frazier’s ninth homer of the season, and it came two days after he fouled a ball off his knee.

The injury held Frazier out of the starting lineup Tuesday, although he entered in the ninth and played the final three innings. He started Wednesday at second base.

Fillmyer allowed two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts in seven innings for Kansas City, which has lost four straight after winning five of six.

Colin Moran put the Pirates on the board first with a single to left that scored Corey Dickerson, who was 2 for 3 with two doubles, in the second inning. Adalberto Mondesi tied it with a homer to center, his 10th, in the third.

LINEUP CHANGE

Royals: OF Jorge Bonifacio was taken out of the starting lineup after going 0 for 4 with four strikeouts and one walk Tuesday. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the ninth and drew a walk.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: RHP Chad Kuhl underwent elbow surgery on Wednesday. No further details regarding the operation were provided. Kuhl was re-examined by Dr. David Altchek in New York on Tuesday. He last pitched on June 26.

UP NEXT

Royals: RHP Jorge Lopez (2-4, 3.93 ERA) is expected to start against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. He left Kansas City’s game against the Minnesota Twins on Sept. 14 with a left rib contusion sustained in a collision with 3B Hunter Dozier.

Pirates: RHP Ivan Nova (9-9, 4.07) takes the mound against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday. In his past two starts, Nova has allowed one run on seven hits over 12 innings with 13 strikeouts and two walks.

— Associated Press —