September 19 – Tarik Skubal homered five times and Riley Greene homered as the host Kansas City Royals (Kansas City Royals) beat the Detroit Tigers 4–2 to give them three consecutive wins.
Detroit (80-73) fell two games behind Kansas City (82-71) and a half-game behind the Minnesota Twins (80-72) in the wild-card race for the third and final wild-card spot. Minnesota lost to the Cleveland Guardians in 10 innings.
After giving up three hits and a run in the first inning, Skubal held the Royals to no hits over the final four innings and allowed only one runner to advance from first base.
Skubal (17-4) finished five innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. His 221 strikeouts led the majors, and his wins and ERA of 2.48 led the American League.
Yuli Gurriel scored the first two goals to give the Royals a 1–0 lead.
Kansas City got a chance to equalize in the second when it walked Jack McKinstry, who advanced on a wild pitch and reached on an infield hit by Jake Rogers and pitcher Alec and scored on Alec Marsh’s throwing error.
Green hit a 427-foot home run out of the right field bullpen and drove in three runs in the third inning. His 24 home runs are the most ever for the Tigers, and he has four homers and 11 RBIs in his last 10 games.
Trey Sweeney hit a two-run double to increase the lead to 4-1 and defeated Marsh (8-9), who allowed four runs (three earned runs), five hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings while striking out five.
Kansas City cut Detroit’s lead to 4–2 on Salvador Pérez’s RBI single after Bobby Witt Jr.’s double in the eighth. It was Witt’s 87th extra-base hit of the season, the most by any Royals hitter.
Will West earned his second save as the Detroit bullpen pitched 13–14 scoreless innings, the final two batters, during the Tigers’ first sweep in Kansas City since June 14–16, 2021.
Detroit has won nine of its last 11 games and is 25-10, the major leagues’ best record since Aug. 11.
The Royals lost their fourth consecutive game and their first home game of the year.
——Visual-level media
