September 18- Parker Meadows drove in a run in the 10th inning to give the Detroit Tigers a 3–1 victory over the host Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.
Lucas Alsager (2-6) stranded Trey Sweeney at third base with three outs, and Meadows threw a broken bat into left field, where the Tigers have won 8 of 10 games. Riley Greene’s two-out single completed the scoring.
In the wild-card race, Detroit (79-73) is 1.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins, who beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, and three games behind Kansas City (82-70) for the second wild-card spot.
Tyler Holton (7-1) recorded six outs without allowing a baserunner, and Jason Foley earned his 25th save in a hitless 10th of inning.
The Tigers took an early 1–0 lead when Andy Ibañez was hit by a pitch and Matt Vierling hit a two-run single over the left field wall.
In the third inning, Bobby Witt Jr. walked with two outs and scored on Michael Massie’s hit to tie the game. Meadows ended the inning by hitting Hunter Renfroe’s long hit ball over the center field wall.
The Tigers forced starter Cole Ragans to pitch in the game during his seven innings of work, usually with runners in scoring position. Ragans tied a season-high with four walks, allowed one run on four hits, and struck out six.
Tigers starter Casey Mize allowed one run on six hits and four walks while striking out three. He was removed in the fifth inning after Tommy Pham allowed a single and two-run single.
Witt stole his 30th base of the year, making him the first shortstop in MLB history to hit at least 30 home runs and 30 interceptions in two seasons.
The Royals suffered a triple double in their third consecutive loss. Despite loading the bases in the fifth and sixth innings, Kansas City failed to score.
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