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Workman lives up to middle name with 1st career tater as Tigers top Royals 6-3 to stop 5-game skid
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- Workman lives up to middle name with 1st career tater as Tigers top Royals 6-3 to stop 5-game skid
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gage Workman came off the bench and hit his first major league homer, a two-run shot that sent the Detroit Tigers past the Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Sunday night to snap a five-game losing streak.
Matt Vierling had a two-run double and Riley Greene reached safely four times as the Tigers prevented a three-game sweep.
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Called up hours earlier from Triple-A Toledo when Kerry Carpenter was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left shoulder sprain, Workman entered as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning.
Workman, whose middle name is Tater, drove a 1-1 slider from Nick Mears (2-2) to right field to give Detroit a 5-3 lead.
Wenceel Pérez added an RBI single in the seventh.
Enmanuel De Jesus (2-0), the fourth of six Tigers pitchers, retired all seven batters he faced. Kenley Jansen struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 483rd career save and seventh this season.
Kansas City lost for only the third time in 10 games.
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Hao-Yu Lee's two-out RBI triple off the outstretched glove of Royals right fielder Jac Caglianone opened the scoring in the second. Zack Short walked and Vierling delivered a two-run double off the left-field wall to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
In the third, Kansas City greeted reliever Drew Anderson with three straight hits, scoring its first run on a hit-and-run, opposite-field single by Vinnie Pasquantino , and another on Carter Jensen 's sacrifice fly.
In the fourth, Caglianone doubled and scored the tying run on Maikel Garcia 's third hit, a two-out single.
Royals starter Noah Cameron exited after allowing a leadoff hit in the fifth on his 95th pitch. He yielded three runs and five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
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The top three Kansas City batters combined for seven of the team's eight hits.
Greene has reached base safely in a career-best 21 consecutive games. In 27 games since April 11, he is batting .384 with 13 extra-base hits.
Up next
Tigers RHP Jack Flaherty (0-3, 5.56 ERA) faces Mets RHP Freddy Peralta (2-3, 3.12) on Tuesday night in New York.
Royals RHP Stephen Kolek (1-0, 4.50 ERA) pitches Tuesday in Chicago against White Sox RHP Erick Fedde (0-4, 3.79).
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
