DETROIT (AP) — These plucky Kansas City Royals are just full of surprises.
Jarrod Dyson doubled and scored the go-ahead run in the fifth inning and the Royals bullpen preserved another lead, holding off the Detroit Tigers 3-2 Monday to complete a four-game sweep on the road for the first time since 1999.
The Royals, who haven’t finished over .500 since winning the 2015 World Series, have won a season-high five straight and own the best record in the American League at 14-7.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but we’re expecting good things to happen,” Kansas City manager Mike Matheny said.
Detroit (7-16) has the worst record in the majors after losing 10 of its last 11 games and is off to its worst start since 2003.
“We won’t talk about it in those terms, I can tell you that,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
Kansas City starter Brad Keller (2-2) gave up two runs and eight hits over six innings.
“Brad was not feeling it early and he figured out how to grind through it and pitched out of trouble,” Matheny said.
Scott Barlow and Greg Holland followed for the Royals, each throwing a scoreless inning. Josh Staumont pitched the ninth for his second save in as many chances, sealing the team’s first four-game sweep against Detroit since 2005.
The Royals have won 58 straight games — dating to June 21, 2019 — when ahead after the seventh inning for the longest such streak in baseball.
Spencer Turnbull (1-1) gave up three runs on five hits and no walks while striking out five. Detroit relievers combined to throw three innings of scoreless relief, but its hitters failed to take advantage of chances to extend or win the game, leaving 11 runners on base.
“In a close game like that, you want to take advantage of any opportunity,” Hinch said. “We had a lot more opportunities than previous games and that’s encouraging.”
In the third inning, the Royals took a 2-0 lead on Carlos Santana’s fifth homer of the season.
Miguel Cabrera’s RBI in the third ended a 15-inning scoreless stretch for the Tigers and Grayson Greiner’s single in the fourth made it 2-all.
“I’m not into silver linings, but I did like the at-bats better,” Hinch said.
