KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rick Porcello outdueled James Shields and the Detroit Tigers won their fifth in a row, beating the Kansas City Royals 5-1 Saturday night.

Porcello (12-5) raised his career record against Kansas City to 8-3 while yielding six hits and one run through seven innings.

Alex Avila drove in three runs, putting the Tigers in position to go for a four-game sweep on Sunday in what had been billed as an AL Central showdown.

The Royals have lost six of their last eight. They are 0-6 at home against Detroit this year.

Shields (9-5) went seven innings and allowed two runs and seven hits. He struck out eight and walked none while throwing 121 pitches.

The Tigers scored three in the ninth against reliever Aaron Crow, starting with J.D. Martinez’s leadoff home run.

Nick Castellanos was safe at first after a replay review overturned a call, and Avila hit a 427-foot homer.

Ian Kinsler’s RBI single put the Tigers on top 1-0 in the third.

In the fourth, Torii Hunter hit a drive into straightaway center field over the head of Jarrod Dyson and turned it into his first triple of the season. The relay throw actually beat the sliding Hunter to the bag, but he was safe when third baseman Mike Moustakas failed to get the tag down. Avila’s RBI single made it 2-0.

Billy Butler had a sacrifice fly in the sixth after the Royals had wasted several scoring chances.

Alcides Escobar bounced into an inning-ending double play in the second, Lorenzo Cain did the same in the third and then, with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth, Porcello struck out Cain on a 2-2 pitch.

Al Alburquerque pitched a perfect ninth for the Tigers, who held the Royals to one run for the second night in a row.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Anibal Sanchez tossed seven stingy innings, Ian Kinsler and Miguel Cabrera drove in runs and the Detroit Tigers squeaked out a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

Sanchez (6-3) scattered eight hits without a walk to help the AL Central-leading Tigers take their second straight from Kansas City. The second-place Royals dropped 6 1-2 games back in the division with two games left before the All-Star break.

Salvador Perez drove in the only run for the Royals, who squandered a solid start by Danny Duffy (5-9). He gave up both runs, only one earned, while losing for the fourth time in five starts.

Joe Nathan worked around a single and a walk in the ninth inning to earn his 19th save, and gave Detroit its fifth straight win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium this season.

Nathan got Nori Aoki to ground out on a full-count pitch to end the game.

The Royals appeared to be 90 feet from tying it with no outs in the eighth, when Aoki swiped second base and went to third when the throw from catcher Bryan Holaday squirted into center field.

While that was going on, though, plate umpire Chad Fairchild was calling batter interference on Lorenzo Cain for stepping into the way of the throw to second. Cain was out and Aoki was forced to make the long, slow trot back to first base. He wound up getting stranded by Joba Chamberlain.

After the Tigers opened the series with a 16-4 blowout Thursday night, Sanchez and Duffy waged an entertaining pitchers’ duel. And just like when they met in June, Sanchez was one run better.

Duffy surrendered a leadoff double to Austin Jackson and an RBI single to Kinsler in the first inning, and then gave up another run in the third when Cabrera hit a lazy sacrifice fly.

Duffy wound up allowing five hits while striking out six without a walk. He departed after hitting the Tigers’ Nick Castellanos leading off the seventh inning, but Kelvin Herrera — who hit the first batter he faced — managed to wiggle out of the jam without any more damage.

Meanwhile, Sanchez was churning through the Royals lineup.

They scored their only run in the first inning when Eric Hosmer stretched a single into a double and Perez followed with a base hit. Sanchez struck out Billy Butler to end the inning, and then kept Kansas City at bay over the next six — though none of them was clean.

Sanchez worked around a single in the second, a double in the third, a leadoff single in the fourth, and singles in the fifth and sixth innings without another run.

His tensest moment came in the seventh, when Mike Moustakas doubled off the wall in center field, missing a tying homer by a couple of feet. The Royals got Moustakas to third with a groundout, but Sanchez induced two more groundouts — one a magnificent spinning stab by shortstop Eugenio Suarez — to quietly end the threat.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Everybody in Detroit’s lineup had at least one hit and scored one run, their season-best offensive onslaught spurring the Tigers to a 16-4 rout of the Kansas City Royals in the opener of their four-game series Thursday night.

The Tigers established a season-high for runs just two days after their 14-5 blitzing of the Dodgers, and took a 5 1/2-game lead over the second-place Royals in the AL Central.

Drew Smyly (5-8) allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk in 6 2/3 innings for Detroit.

Jeremy Guthrie (5-8) gave up a career-worst eight earned runs on eight hits, three walks and two hit batters. He was mercifully pulled with no outs in the fifth, which means the Royals’ veteran has now allowed 16 earned runs in eight-plus innings covering his last two starts.

The Tigers stunned the Royals with three runs in the first, added three more in the fourth and delivered the haymaker with a season-best eight-run fifth. Detroit wound up with 19 hits in the game, getting at least one hit and one run from all 11 players who stepped to the plate.

Torii Hunter led the charge, leading off the fifth with a homer and adding a single later in the inning to finish with three RBIs. Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez also drove in three, and Ian Kinsler, Nick Castellanos and Eugenio Suarez drove in two runs apiece.

Billy Butler homered in the fourth for KC. Eric Hosmer hit a two-run shot in the seventh.

The hot-hitting Tigers have won three straight overall, and four straight in Kansas City, building some momentum with three games remaining before the All-Star break.

The tone of the game was set in the first inning, when four of the first five Tigers reached base. A series of singles, groundouts and sacrifice flies resulted in a 3-0 lead.

Kansas City scratched out a run in the second, only for Detroit to score three more in the fourth. Cabrera delivered the big blow with a two-out, two-run double.

The floodgates finally opened in the fifth, when Hunter began a parade of 12 batters to the plate with his 12th homer of the season. Castellanos also had two hits in the inning, and everybody in the lineup besides Austin Jackson and Don Kelly reached base before the carnage was over.

Guthrie was pulled after two batters, and recently signed Royals reliever Scott Downs gave up two more runs while retiring one batter. Louis Coleman, recalled from Triple-A Omaha, gave up four more runs to cap the worst pitching performance by the Royals this season.

Kansas City had previously allowed 12 runs in a loss to Toronto on May 31.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alex Gordon will have to be content with watching All-Star teammates Salvador Perez and Greg Holland when the Royals triumvirate heads to Target Field in Minneapolis next week.

The Royals announced Thursday that Gordon will miss the annual Midsummer Classic after visiting with a specialist and receiving an injection for his sprained right wrist. Angels shortstop Erick Aybar was added to the American League roster as his replacement.

Gordon, Holland and Perez are all headed to their second straight All-Star game.

”Obviously this is not what I wanted to happen, especially coming into the All-Star break and being on the All-Star team, but the most important thing is to be ready for our games,” Gordon said before the start of a four-game series Thursday night against Detroit.

”To be healthy after the All-Star break is the big thing here,” he said.

Gordon spent nearly seven years in the big leagues before making his first All-Star team last season, and the three-time Gold Glove winner is having another solid year. Along with sure-handed defense in left field, he was hitting .268 with nine homers and 44 RBIs.

”It’s an honor to be part of the game, whether you play or not,” Gordon said. ”Just to be around some of the greatest players in the game and experience all the festivities that go with it, (Derek) Jeter’s last All-Star game and things like that, it’s special.”

Royals manager Ned Yost said he’s holding off on putting Gordon on the disabled list in hopes that resting him against Detroit and during the All-Star break will be enough.

Meanwhile, Royals left-hander Jason Vargas remained in Florida after undergoing an emergency appendectomy on Wednesday night. Yost said that Vargas, who is 8-4 with a 3.31 ERA, was expected to remain hospitalized on Thursday before returning to Kansas City on Friday.

Reliever Louis Coleman was recalled from Triple-A Omaha to take his place on the roster.

Third baseman Mike Moustakas was also feeling better after an illness, Yost said, though he remained out of the starting lineup. Danny Valencia was taking his place.

The recent spate of injuries and sickness hardly tarnishes what has been a positive first half for the Royals, who began the 4 1/2 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central.

Their pitching staff and defense have been among the best in baseball, and an offense that was the culprit in an early season swoon has shown signs in the past couple of weeks of turning around.

The fact that Kansas City got its three amigos in Gordon, Perez and Holland back in the All-Star game is a testament to how far the club has come.

For much of the past two decades, the long-downtrodden franchise has struggled to identify its requisite token All-Star.

Hence, guys such as Mark Redman and Gil Meche found their way onto rosters.

”We were kind of hoping for a few more guys to join us,” Holland said, ”but it’s special to be around Salvy, because he’s helped me personally so much, and so has Gordo, diving and throwing guys out at the plate. Between those two, that’s a big part of my success.”

Perez was voted into the starting lineup this season, but he’ll have a hard time trumping the way he finished his first appearance. He was inserted in last year’s game in time to catch the final pitch that the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera made in an All-Star game.

Holland had pitched the previous inning last year, and remembers walking to the mound at Citi Field in New York and thinking, ”Just don’t screw this up for Mo.”

Now, he’s hoping to be the final pitcher that the AL squad uses in a victory.

”For me it’s rewarding because I’m proud of my work ethic, being able to not be complacent – ‘Hey, I made an All-Star team,’ and start changing your routine. We’ve stayed at it,” Holland said. ”You’re rewarded in multiple years means you’re staying consistent, you’re continuing to work and continuing to get better.”

— Associated Press —

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Salvador Perez gave the Royals a late lift Wednesday night heading into a key midseason series.

Perez hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the ninth inning and Kansas City beat Tampa Bay 5-4 to take two of three from the Rays.

The second-place Royals return home Thursday night to begin a four-game series against AL Central-leading Detroit, which has a 4 1/2-game lead.

“That was a huge win for us,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “That’s the difference between 4 1/2 games back compared to 5 1/2 games back. Definitely nice to have a little momentum going home for the last four games before the All-Star break. It’s a lot better than the alternative.”

Kirby Yates (0-1), the fifth Tampa Bay reliever, entered with runners at the corners and gave up Perez’s one-out shot into the left-field corner.

Perez wasn’t sure if the drive would stay fair or even clear the low fence near the foul pole.

“As soon as the ball hit on the other side, good for us,” he said.

It’s been a big week for Perez, chosen Sunday to start at catcher for the American League in next week’s All-Star game.

Aaron Crow (4-1) pitched a scoreless eighth and Greg Holland got three outs for his 24th save.

All-Star outfielder Alex Gordon (sprained right wrist) and third baseman Mike Moustakas (flu) were not in Kansas City’s starting lineup. In addition, left-hander Jason Vargas was taken to the hospital for an appendectomy.

Gordon entered as a ninth-inning defensive replacement. He will have an MRI exam Thursday.

“I don’t think it’s anything serious,” he said.

Kevin Kiermaier went 4 for 4 with a grand slam for the Rays.

Tampa Bay, which lost for the fourth time in 14 games, missed a chance to gain a game on AL East-leading Baltimore. The Rays remained nine games back of the Orioles in fourth place.

“It stings a little bit,” Yates said. “It’s a game we could have won and we needed to win. Obviously, it doesn’t feel good. It’s a situation where you let your team down, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

After starter Yordano Ventura walked light-hitting Jose Molina to load the bases with two outs in the fourth, Kiermaier sent a shot into the right-field stands to give Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead.

Eric Hosmer hit a first-pitch solo homer with two outs in the first off Alex Cobb that put the Royals up 1-0. It was the first time Cobb pitched against Kansas City since being struck near the right ear June 15 last year by a liner hit by Hosmer.

Cobb, sidelined for two months due to problems that included a concussion and symptoms of vertigo, allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Ventura gave up four runs, five hits and four walks in five innings. He struck out five.

The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth, but scored just once to take a 2-0 lead on Raul Ibanez’s grounder. Kansas City failed to score with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh when reliever Grant Balfour got a pop fly from Perez.

— Associated Press —