KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Michael Massey and Salvador Perez homered as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 8-3 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.
Massey opened the scoring in the second inning with a leadoff homer, the first long ball given up this season by Tigers starter Reese Olson after 48 1/3 innings, snapping the majors’ longest homerless streak.
In his next at-bat, Massey stunned Olson with a liner off his right hip while Vinnie Pasquantino scored on catcher Jake Rogers’ throwing error for a 2-0 Royals lead.
After tossing a few warmup pitches, Olson (0-5) exited with a right hip contusion. He threw 2 2/3 innings, allowing the two runs and five hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
Perez led off the sixth with his ninth homer as the Royals greeted reliever Joey Wentz with five consecutive hits. Seven straight batters reached safely while Kansas City scored six runs to build an 8-1 lead.
Michael Wacha (4-4) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings while walking one with three strikeouts to win his third straight start.
Kerry Carpenter hit his sixth homer in the fourth inning – a one-out solo shot into the leftfield fountains – then doubled and scored in the seventh on Colt Keith’s two-out double. Keith had three of Detroit’s seven hits.
Carpenter’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly capped the scoring.
The Tigers have scored 20 runs while losing 8-of-9 starts by Olson.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Tigers RHP Reese Olson left Monday’s game with a right hip contusion after being struck by a third-inning line drive.
Royals LHP Jake Brentz was reinstated from the Injured List and optioned to Double-A Northwest Arkansas.
ROSTER MOVES
Royals designated RHP Matt Sauer for assignment and selected LHP Sam Long from Triple-A Omaha.
UP NEXT
Tigers RHP Casey Mize (1-2, 3.50 ERA) opposes Royals RHP Alec Marsh (3-1, 2.43) Tuesday evening.
