The Detroit Tigers gave their home fans a reason to cheer on Wednesday night, defeating the Kansas City Royal 5-4 to take sole possession of first place in the American League Central division.
Locked in a 4-4 game in the eighth inning, Detroit's Johnny Peralta hit a ground ball that the Royals attempted to turn for an inning-ending double play. But Andy Dirks slid hard into second base, breaking up the play and allowing the Tigers to take a 5-4 lead.
"I was just trying to break up the double play and try to get a piece of him any way I could to help us score that run," Dirks told the Associated Press. "That's just kind of the way you play baseball."
The win left Detroit along atop the division after the Chicago White Sox lost to the Cleveland Indians 6-4 later on Wednesday. It's the first time since July 24 that the Tigers have been in sole possession of the top spot in the division.
The Tigers took an early lead of a Dirks single in the second, but quickly fell behind to the Royals. Detroit was in a 4-1 hole after the Royals scored three in the third and added another run on a Jeff Francouer home run in the fourth. But the Tigers never gave up.
In the bottom of the fourth Alex Avila hit a two-run home run and Austin Jackson added a solo bomb 414 feet to left field to tie the game at 4-4.
Miguel Cabrera, who is threatening for a Triple Crown this year, was robbed of a home run in the fifth inning by Alex Gordon that would have broken the tie game.
"It was hit so high that I had plenty of time to find the fence and get ready," Gordon said. "I thought I might have to climb the wall or at least jump, but at the end, I just had to put my glove up."
Cabrera remained one home run behind Texas star Josh Hamilton for the league lead and is first in RBIs and batting average. No one has won the Triple Crown since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
In the eighth inning the Royals thought they were going to get out of a jam when Peralta hit a ground ball to third baseman Mike Moustakas, but Dirks slid so hard into second that the Royals never even got a shot at throwing out the runner at first.
"Peralta was slow getting out of the box, so that's an easy double play," Moustakas said. "I'm always going to go to second on that play, but Dirks did a heck of a job to break it up."
The play allowed Don Kelly to score the winning run for the Tigers.
"That's good, old-fashioned baseball," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.
Detroit has played excellent at home, winning six of the last nine games at Comerica Park and 32 of the last 43 overall at home.
The Royals previously helped the Tigers out by winning four in a row against the White Sox, but then dropped three in a row against Detroit.
"I love my team," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "We've played three games here, and we're 0-3, but we're in these games and we're not far from the point where we are going to be consistently winning these teams. No matter what has happened this year, we've gotten knocked down and gotten right back up. These guys fight every day, and they are going to do everything in their power to beat Detroit in these games."
Detroit's starting pitcher Rick Porcello didn't do the team any favors, lasting only four innings, giving up seven hits and four runs. But the Detroit bullpen was stellar, holding the game at 4-4 and not allowing a run in five innings of work.
Jose Valverde closed out the game for the Tigers for his 32nd save of the year.
Detroit has seven games left on the season, all against below-.500 teams. They will finish their home series with the Royals Thursday, play three against the Minnesota Twins starting Friday and the finish the season with a three-game series against the Royals.
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