Tigers come back to best Royals

05/24/2006 2:50 AM ET

By Robert Falkoff / MLB.com

KANSAS CITY -- In a defining eighth-inning matchup against Elmer Dessens, Curtis Granderson lined a pitch to center field and took off toward first without having a feel for whether it would be a tough-luck third out or a potential game-winning, two-run hit."I wasn't sure right away," Granderson said. "It looked like the guy [Aaron Guiel] had a good jump on it."

The way things have been going for the surging Tigers and the fading Royals, the end of the play seemed inevitable. The sinking liner hit off the glove of Guiel and bounced away, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score in what turned out to be an 8-5 comeback victory for Detroit.

Whatever can go right is going right for the Tigers. Whatever can go wrong is going wrong for the Royals. If Guiel had made the sliding catch, Kansas City would have gone to the ninth with at least a one-run lead. Instead, the Tigers used Granderson's two-run double as the telling blow in a four-run rally that took starter Kenny Rogers off the hook.

Trailing 4-0 early and 5-3 going into the eighth, the Tigers still managed to pull the game out on a night when Rogers surrendered four home runs. Starting pitching has been the foundation for Detroit's rise to prominence early, but the victory formula on Tuesday revolved mainly around a persistent offense that produced eight runs in the final four innings.

"It's good for them to see that we can win some different ways," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

It looked bad for Detroit when hard-throwing Ambiorix Burgos fanned Carlos Guillen and Chris Shelton to start the eighth. But then Craig Monroe coaxed a walk, prompting Kansas City manager Buddy Bell to lift Burgos after 2 1/3 innings of relief.

"It's pretty hard to lay off 97 or 98 [mph] and then have a guy throwing a split-finger," Monroe said. "Fortunately, I was able to see the ball well and lay off some pretty close pitches."

Dessens was recently anointed the Royals closer, but his appearance in that capacity went haywire. Omar Infante singled and Brandon Inge made it 5-4 with an RBI single. That set up the key confrontation between Dessens and Granderson.

After making solid contact, Granderson said he temporarily lost track of the ball as he was running to first.

"Then I heard the crowd make a disappointing noise and I knew he dropped it," Granderson said.

The Royals (10-33) have dropped 11 straight games, while the Tigers (31-14) have won four in a row and 11 of their last 12.

"If you play nine innings, you never know," Leyland said. "I heard some guys saying that coming off the field. You're not going to come back every night. But if you play a hard nine innings, you've got a chance to come back and get one, once in a while. We were fortunate we did that. We played nine innings and got some rewards from it."

In the early going, the Tigers couldn't do much offensively against Runelvys Hernandez, who held Detroit scoreless until Guillen hit a two-run homer in the sixth. Rogers, who had allowed just four homers in his first nine starts, surrendered two homers to Mark Grudzielanek and back-to-back homers to Reggie Sanders and Emil Brown.

"Three out of the four were good pitches," Rogers said.

The Tigers got Rogers off the hook with a no-decision by banging out 13 hits in the final four innings.

"Kenny wasn't at his best, but he hung in there and gave us a chance," Leyland said.

The Tigers continue to show the mark of a winner in many areas. Shelton took a run away from Kansas City to end the seventh with a diving stop to Tony Graffanino's smash just inside the bag at first.

When they absolutely needed it, the Tigers had the defense and the offense.

"We're just playing winning baseball," Monroe said. "Whatever it takes. We just keep grinding for all nine innings and see where that takes us."

Nice formula. Nice results.

Add us as a preferred source on Google