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.
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.
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.