Royals see hopes fade
The Kansas City Royals have not been to the playoffs in 29 years and are skidding towards a 30th straight season.
Daniel Nava hit a grand slam, Xander Bogaerts added a three-run shot and the visiting Boston Red Sox rallied past the Royals 8-4 on Sunday.
Kansas City blew a four-run lead and dropped three of four to the last-place Red Sox.
The Royals fell 11/2 games behind Detroit, which beat Cleveland, in the A.L. Central. Kansas City is in the thick of the wild-card race.
Royals manager Ned Yost was asked if his club could afford to lose three of four to a last-place club that is 18-games below .500.
“No, no, no,” Yost succinctly answered and promptly ended his postgame media conference.
The Royals loaded the bases in the ninth off Edward Mujica, but Lorenzo Cain struck out looking to end the game.
“That pitch was a foot outside,” Cain said.
Tigers 6, Indians 4
The Cleveland Indians can start thinking about October vacation plans.
Ian Kinsler hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning, and the host Tigers beat the Indians for a three-game sweep that left Cleveland five games back for the second A.L. wild card with 14 games left.
“Now we’re going to have to get real hot real fast,” Indians center fielder Michael Bourn said. “I feel like we had a chance to win two out of three. They showed us why they won the division the last three years.”
Kinsler’s homer off Bryan Shaw (5-5), his first since Aug. 30, followed Rajai Davis’ infield single and put the Tigers ahead 4-3.
“It’s not easy to get to that guy,” Kinsler said.
A night earlier, Alex Avila hit a two-out, two-run homer off Shaw in the eighth inning of the Tigers’ 5-4 win.
Detroit widened its lead in the eighth inning Sunday on C.C. Lee’s run-scoring wild pitch over a shoulder of catcher Chris Gimenez during an intentional walk to Kinsler. Torii Hunter followed with a run-scoring forceout.
Orioles 3, Yankees 2
Steve Pearce doubled in a ninth-inning run and scored the game-winner on a double by Kelly Johnson as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees in Baltimore to inch closer to the A.L. East title.
Any number of Orioles wins and Toronto losses totaling three will give Baltimore its first division title since 1997.
The winning rally came after Brian McCann hit a tiebreaking homer off Darren O’Day (5-1) in the top of the ninth.
Nelson Cruz opened the bottom half with double off David Roberson (2-5). Pinch-runner Quintin Berry scored on Pearce’s liner into the left-field corner, and one out later, Johnson – a former Yankee – delivered the game-winner into the gap in right-center.
Baltimore celebrated its seventh win in eight games by crowding around Johnson at second base.