Miguel Cabrera and Max Scherzer have been so spectacularly successful this season they’re earning the right to be mentioned in the same breath with some of baseball’s greats.

Cabrera hit his 40th home run and had an RBI single to help Scherzer become baseball’s first 18-game winner this season as the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals 6-3 Sunday to win the five-game series.

”Both of them are on a roll that you don’t see very often,” Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. ”Tigers fans could go years without ever seeing something like that again.”

Cabrera became the third player since 1921 to have at least 40 homers and 120 RBIs while batting .350 or better through 116 games, joining Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx, according to STATS.

”That’s nice,” Cabrera said with a touch of awe as he looked at a list of the impressive company he joined.

Scherzer (18-1) gave up two runs on five hits over eight innings. Scherzer and Roger Clemens are the pitchers since 1919 to have 18 wins in their first 19 decisions as starters, STATS said. Clemens did it with the New York Yankees in 2001, when he finished 20-3.

”It’s great because I respect what he was able to do throughout his career and in that season,” Scherzer said. ”But the win-loss record is a little fluky. Every time I go out, the guys are putting up runs for me and are playing great defense so I can’t take credit for being 18-1.”

Royals manager Ned Yost said before the game that intentionally walking Cabrera wasn’t a good option because Prince Fielder and Victor Martinez hit behind him.

After Cabrera hit a two-run homer in the first inning and a run-scoring single in the third, Yost chose to give Cabrera a free pass in the fifth inning with a runner on third and Fielder followed with an inning-ending groundout. Cabrera has eight homers in 13 games.

The reigning Triple Crown winner leads the majors in batting (.360) and RBIs (120). Cabrera’s home run pulled him within four of Baltimore’s Chris Davis for the big league lead, then Davis hit his 45th later in the day.

”We don’t worry about him,” Cabrera said. ”We focus on what we can do here in Detroit.”

Cabrera connected a day after his leadoff home run in the ninth inning beat Kansas City. The third-place Royals lost three of five this weekend and left Comerica Park, trailing the AL Central-leading Tigers by 8 1/2 games.

”This club is not going away,” Leyland said, referring to the Royals. ”Cleveland is not going away.”

Joaquin Benoit entered in the ninth in a non-save situation and gave up a solo homer to the first batter he faced, Billy Butler, on a 1-2 pitch to let the Royals pull within three runs.

Bruce Chen (5-1) allowed six earned runs – more than he had given up in his last six starts – on eight hits over 5 1-3 innings. Chen didn’t regret either of the two pitches he threw to Cabrera that were hit, watching him pull an outside fastball and a cutter several inches inside and off the plate.

”When he’s on, I don’t think you can throw anything around him,” Chen said.

Austin Jackson led off with a single on Chen’s second pitch and Cabrera followed with a line drive over the left-field wall.

Cabrera became the third player in franchise history to hit 40 homers in consecutive seasons. Hank Greenberg did it during the 1937 and 1938 seasons while Cecil Fielder pulled off the feat in 1990 and 1991.

Cabrera put Detroit up 3-0 in the third with a single, taking advantage of a pitch to hit when Yost chose not to walk him with Torii Hunter on second base.

The Royals had only one hit through three innings and two after six innings. They scored two runs on three hits in the seventh against Scherzer.

— Associated Presss —

Miguel Cabrera’s body is making it difficult for him to run without appearing to be in pain.

Luckily for the Tigers, it’s not keeping the reigning Triple Crown winner from swinging the bat really well.

Cabrera hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the ninth inning, lifting Detroit to a 6-5 win over Kansas City on Saturday night hours after Royals infielder Miguel Tejada was suspended for at least the rest of this season for testing positive for an amphetamine.

”Every at-bat, every game, you want to do something good, because I think people pay for that,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera has been slowed by a strained lower abdomen, injured hip and banged-up left leg. He was healthy enough to take a victory lap and looked relatively comfortable rounding the bases as a sellout crowd of 41,850 cheered.

”When you hit a home run like that, you’re loose, smooth,” he said.

Cabrera leads the major leagues with a .358 batting average and 117 RBIs and trails only Baltimore’s Chris Davis in homers.

Aaron Crow (7-4) threw five pitches, with Cabrera hitting his 3-1 offering for an opposite field homer, his 39th, driving a fastball high and outside just over the right-field wall.

”There’s not three hitters in baseball that could hit that pitch out of the ballpark,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”He’s one of them. Take your hat off to him.”

Joaquin Benoit (3-0) gave up only one walk in the ninth for the win.

Prince Fielder hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning and made a good defensive play for the third out of the ninth.

Kansas City tied the game for a third time in the eighth inning when Emilo Bonifacio singled, stole second, advanced on a throwing era by Detroit’s backup catcher and scored on Chris Getz’s RBI single off Jose Veras.

”We couldn’t get the lead,” Yost said.

Detroit starter Doug Fister gave up three runs and 10 hits over 6 1-3 innings. After throwing a season-high 118 pitches, he was replaced by Drew Smyly, who gave up a game-tying homer to Salvador Perez on a 1-2 count with two outs in the seventh.

Kansas City starter Wade Davis allowed four runs on eight hits and lasted just 3 2-3 innings.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland and catcher Brayan Pena were ejected in the fourth inning after a call went against Detroit and helped Kansas City tie the game.

The Tigers were angry because Kansas City’s Alcides Escobar appeared to foul off a pitch with a check swing after the ball hit the dirt. The umpiring crew, though, ruled that it was a wild pitch and that allowed Chris Getz to advance from first to third base.

Leyland was ejected and went on the field a second time, directing a demonstrative rant toward first base umpire Bob Davidson.

After Escobar hit a game-tying double, Pena had more to say about the call and was tossed by plate umpire Mike Muchlinski.

Davidson took the blame for missing the call.

”That’s really on me because I should’ve seen the ball change directions,” Davidson said following the game.

In the home half of the inning, Cabrera put Detroit ahead 4-3 with his 24th double on a hit deep into the right field corner, but barely beat the throw to second base. Cabrera, clearly, would rather play through pain than sit and hope to get healthier.

In the first inning, he hit a grounder to third that Mike Moustakas bobbled into foul territory and still managed to throw Cabrera out.

Kansas City scored two in the third inning on consecutive singles by Alex Gordon and Perez and tied it at 3 in the fourth after the disputed call that led to Leyland and Pena being ejected.

The Royals tied the game for the second time with Perez’s fifth homer in the seventh and Fielder’s line drive over the right-center wall – his 19th homer, and second of the series – put Detroit back ahead by a run.

Tejada will not be back in baseball any time soon, if at all.

He became the third former MVP in a month to be suspended, getting suspended for 105 games. His ban came after Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez was suspended for 211 games – he’s appealing – and Brewers star Ryan Braun got a 65-game penalty that will keep him off the field for the rest of the season.

A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Tejada tested positive for Adderall, a substance the 39-year-old has used to treat attention deficit disorder. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because those details were not made public.

Tejada apologized in a statement released by the players’ association, saying he made a mistake for taking a medication to treat a medical condition while re-applying for an exemption to use it.

— Associated Presss —

James Shields allowed three hits in seven scoreless innings and was part of a combined four-hit shutout in Kansas City’s 3-0 win over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night to give the Royals a sweep of a day-night doubleheader.

Kansas City won the first game 2-1 as Danny Duffy took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and pitched a combined two-hitter.

Royals pitching held the Tigers to a run and six hits for the two games.

Eric Hosmer homered in each game.

Shields (8-8) won his fourth game in his past five starts. He walked four and struck out one.

The Tigers threatened against Shields in the second and third innings.

In the second, a walk to Andy Dirks and Brayan Pena’s single gave Detroit runners on first and second with one out.

But Shields got both Ramon Santiago and Jose Iglesias to hit pop-ups to the shortstop to get out of the inning.

The right-hander walked Austin Jackson to lead off the third inning and Torii Hunter singled him to second.

But Shields retired the next three hitters.

Miguel Cabrera was retired on weak roller to Shields between the mound and first base on which the runners moved up to second and third.

But Prince Fielder hit a short fly ball to left fielder Alex Gordon. Despite Jackson’s speed, it wasn’t nearly deep enough for him to score.

Shields then got Victor Martinez to line out to right to end the inning.

Luke Hochevar pitched a perfect eighth and Greg Holland worked the ninth, allowing a hit, for his 34th save. He had saves in both games of the doubleheader.

Jose Alvarez (1-3), called up from Triple-A Toledo to make the start, took the loss. He gave up two runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out five.

Alvarez’s only big mistakes came in the third with two outs. He walked Jamey Carroll and Hosmer followed with his second home run of the day, that gave the Royals a 2-0 lead. Hosmer blasted Alvarez’s 1-1 pitch deep into the right-field stands for his 14th homer.

Alvarez was replaced by Jeremy Bonderman with two outs in the sixth. Bonderman got the final out of that inning and the first two outs of the seventh before being replaced by Phil Coke and Al Alburquerque.

Carroll’s sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 3-0. It was an unearned run off Bonderman, whose throwing error on an attempted pickoff throw sent Chris Getz from first to third. He scored on the sac fly.

Duffy (1-0) beat Justin Verlander in the opener.

Duffy was called up from Triple-A Omaha to make his second big league start of the season, and didn’t allow a hit until Cabrera’s hard-hit, two out single in the sixth.

”I was glad that they finally got one, honestly, because I just wanted to pitch,” said Duffy, who underwent Tommy John surgery. ”I wanted to protect this arm.”

Kelvin Herrera replaced Duffy in the seventh and retired the side in order. Aaron Crow worked the eighth and allowed Santiago’s pinch-hit home run leading off the inning. Crow got the next three batters.

”Would have liked to have been able to accomplish two things, win and keep the bullpen fresh,” Verlander said. ”Just didn’t happen that way. Felt like I threw the ball well. Just their guys pitched extremely well, which is they’ve done all year.”

Verlander (12-9) allowed two runs and seven hits in eight innings. He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.

Kansas City made it 2-0 on consecutive doubles leading off the seventh by Justin Maxwell and Emilio Bonifacio.

— Associated Press —

Prince Fielder went three weeks without a homer, and the Detroit Tigers kept right on rolling.

Now that drought’s over – and Fielder’s team is sitting pretty in the AL Central.

Fielder’s two-run shot in the first inning Thursday night sent the Tigers to a 4-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Andy Dirks added four hits for Detroit, which leads second-place Cleveland by 6 1/2 games in the division.

”Prince produces runs. I don’t care how he does it,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. ”Tonight happened to be by way of the home run, but he’s a run producer, always has been. It’s in the book and it’ll be in the book at the end of this year.”

Dirks had two doubles and two singles for the Tigers, who took the opener of this five-game series with third-place Kansas City. The Royals have lost three in a row after a 17-3 stretch that put them in contention for a postseason spot.

Kansas City now trails Detroit by 8 1/2 games in the division. The Royals are 5 1/2 behind Oakland in the race for a wild card.

Detroit’s Anibal Sanchez (11-7) allowed a run and seven hits in 7 1-3 innings. Bruce Rondon finished the eighth, and Joaquin Benoit pitched a hitless ninth for his 16th save in 16 chances.

Jeremy Guthrie (12-9) allowed four runs and 13 hits in seven innings.

Fielder went deep for the first time since July 24, belting a towering drive to right-center to give Detroit a 2-1 lead. The Tigers scored two more runs in the fifth on RBI singles by Torii Hunter and Miguel Cabrera.

Dirks, batting leadoff because Austin Jackson had the night off, scored twice. It was the second four-hit game of the season for Dirks, who is from Kansas and went to Wichita State.

”It felt good. It’s hard to explain – it’s just one of those ‘feel’ things,” Dirks said. ”I could feel the path of the bat as I was swinging. My timing was better and everything just clicks. Your legs work with your hands and different things.”

The Tigers won despite an atrocious night on the bases. Dirks led off the Detroit third with a double, and then was caught in a rundown when Hunter grounded to the mound. After Dirks was tagged out, the Royals got a double play because Hunter had turned too far around first.

In the sixth, Brayan Pena took too much of a turn after hitting a single, and he too was caught off the bag.

Kansas City, meanwhile, stole three bases, but the Royals couldn’t break through against Sanchez after scoring a run in the first inning.

”We had a good scouting report today,” Kansas City’s Alex Gordon said. ”When you’re not hitting doubles and home runs, you’ve got to make something happen.”

Gordon’s RBI single made it 1-0, but Dirks singled to start the bottom of the first, and Fielder went deep for his 18th homer of the season.

The Royals had a man on second in the second, a man on third in the fourth and then a man on second again in the fifth. But they were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

After a double by Dirks in the fifth, Detroit had men on second and third with one out. Hunter singled to make it 3-1, and Cabrera’s fly ball to center dropped in front of Jarrod Dyson for another run.

Cabrera, who has been bothered by hip and leg injuries lately, made a nice sliding catch in foul territory near third base on an eighth-inning popup by Gordon.

”He’s obviously playing in some pain,” Leyland said. ”Just a gutty performance, day after day. You know, we’ve got a lot of guys that go out there all the time – and I don’t want to slight Miggy, because he’s been going out there and playing. There’s not too many guys that could do what he’s doing, under the circumstances, but we’ve got a lot of guys that go out there.”

— Associated Press —

Justin Ruggiano picked the scuffed-up ball off the carpet, smiled a toothy smile and proudly held it up for everyone to see in the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium.

A souvenir from his first career hit? Nope.

Just his first hit in a while.

Ruggiano snapped a franchise-worst 0-for-42 slump by hitting that ball for a single in the first inning Wednesday, and then added two more hits and drove in a run as the Miami Marlins beat the Kansas City Royals 5-2 to wrap up a winning three-game series.

”It became a mental issue. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody in the world,” said Ruggiano, whose last hit came on July 12. ”I’m just glad it’s over with. Now I can get back to doing what I do.”

Ruggiano drove in the Marlins’ first run, but they still trailed 2-1 when Koyie Hill doubled off reliever Tim Collins (2-6) to start the seventh. Christian Yelich then hit a grounder toward third that utility man Elliot Johnson let through his legs to put runners on second and third.

Donovan Solano and Logan Morrison followed with RBI groundouts to give the Marlins the lead.

That was enough for the Marlins bullpen. Dan Jennings (2-3) got through the sixth, A.J. Ramos worked the seventh and eighth, and Steve Cishek handled the ninth for his 26th save.

Cishek struck out Alex Gordon with runners on first and second to end the game.

”This is a resilient group of guys,” Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. ”They keep coming back and battling, and I think you saw some big hits by guys out there.”

Solano and Morrison each finished with a pair of RBIs for Miami.

”It’s always good to go out there and play well against teams that are making a push for a playoff spot,” Redmond said. ”That’s a good feeling heading home.”

Indeed, the Royals were rolling when the series began. They’d won 17 of 20 after taking the opener to climb into playoff contention, but now limp off to play five games in four days against AL Central-leading Detroit with their first defeat in eight series.

Now, the Marlins have won two straight to finish off a long road trip.

The Royals, blanked 1-0 in 10 innings Tuesday night, got off to a good start when Eric Hosmer doubled in the first inning and eventually scored on a single by Salvador Perez.

The Royals failed to take advantage of the erratic Jacob Turner, though. The Marlins starter walked six without a strikeout in five-plus innings, but Kansas City could only squeeze out one more run against him on a groundout by David Lough in the fourth.

The Marlins got their first run when Ruggiano drove in Adeiney Hechavarria in the top half of the fourth. They were otherwise hamstrung by Royals starter Ervin Santana, who dodged eight hits and two walks over six innings to hand his bullpen the lead.

The Royals’ relievers – with little help from their defense – failed to hold on. Johnson’s error turned the game, Royals manager Ned Yost said, and eventually led to the go-ahead runs.

”In Elliot’s defense, it was cue-ball shot with a lot of English. It had a lot of spin on it, it hit and then boom, it stayed down,” Yost said. ”It changed the whole complexion of the inning.”

For his part, Johnson refused to make any excuses.

”We’re in the middle of the hunt and they’re not going to tolerate that sort of stuff. It seems like an easy play,” Johnson said. ”It wasn’t as easy as it seems, (but) still I should have made it. I’m playing in the big leagues and you’ve got to make those kinds of plays.”

Solano and Morrison tacked on run-scoring singles off Luke Hochevar in the ninth, and Cishek finished up for his 21st straight save, the third-best streak in the majors.

— Associated Press —