Detroit Tigers veteran Miguel Cabrera showed up to Kauffman Stadium in vintage form.
The 38-year-old crushed a grand slam in the seventh inning — his second homer in the game — for a two-run lead over the Kansas City Royals. His sixth-career grand slam came with two outs in a 3-2 count, beating reliever Greg Holland’s slider.
The Tigers (18-26) mounted a comeback in the seventh, thanks to Cabrera’s grand slam, for a 7-5 win Friday over the Royals, extending their winning streak to four games. Detroit has won nine of the past 11 games.
Cabrera finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs. The Tigers went 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Bryan Garcia, Jose Cisnero and Michael Fulmer pitched scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to complete the victory. Fulmer picked up his fourth save and reached 100 mph with his fastball.
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Royals starter Mike Minor was chased with no outs in the seventh inning. He allowed back-to-back singles to JaCoby Jones and Jake Rogers, forcing manager Mike Matheny to call on reliever Tyler Zuber. Despite a single from Robbie Grossman to load the bases, the Royals cut down Jones trying to score on a ball in the dirt that went behind catcher Salvador Perez.
But Zuber walked Jonathan Schoop, loading the bases again. He bounced back with a seven-pitch strikeout of Jeimer Candelario for two outs. Then, Holland entered from the bullpen to face Cabrera, who delivered his go-ahead grand slam.
The second of three games is at 4:10 p.m. Saturday. Left-hander Matthew Boyd is starting, opposed by righty Brady Singer. Boyd has a 2.45 ERA with 37 strikeouts in eight starts.
Jose Urena
A 10-pitch battle between Tigers starter Jose Urena and Michael A. Taylor proved to be the difference in Urena’s start, as Taylor blasted a two-run homer on a sinker to give the Royals a 5-3 lead in the sixth inning.
Urena got Nicky Lopez to ground out to end the sixth, but he did not return for the seventh inning. He gave up five runs on 10 hits and zero walks, with one strikeout, across six frames. He threw 61 of his 94 pitches for strikes.
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The Royals first scored off Urena in the third inning. Carlos Santana hit a broken-bat single to left field, plating two runs for a 2-1 lead. He worked through jams in the middle innings but got tagged in the sixth inning. Before Taylor’s two-run blast, Ryan O’Hearn singled on a line drive to right field to score Perez, who had doubled to start the inning, and tie the game at three.
Urena threw 46 sinkers, 27 sliders, 18 changeups and three four-seam fastballs. He got four swings and misses and 14 called strikes. Although Urena induced nine ground-ball outs, he only managed one double play. (In the second inning, Niko Goodrum made his sixth error in the past 12 games at shortstop.)
Don’t test Haase
In the first inning, Andrew Benintendi tested Eric Haase’s arm in left field. Haase — a catcher by trade — has transformed himself into a left fielder, giving him two positions and more opportunities at playing time.
While it’s not surprising Benintendi decided to try for second base, he quickly learned it was a mistake. On the line drive, Haase threw out Benintendi on one hop for the third out in the first inning.
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It was Haase’s first outfield assist in his second career game as a left fielder. He has played catcher for five games, including Spencer Turnbull’s no-hitter Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners.
Offensively, Haase chipped in a single in the fourth inning to put runners on the corners with one out. His single pushed him to a five-game hitting streak. The next batter, Goodrum, singled to left field to score Jeimer Candelario to tie the game at two. Haase scored on Wilson Ramos’ single, beating a throw from Taylor in center field, for a 3-2 lead.
Two HRs closer
Cabrera unloaded on a 2-0 fastball from Minor in the second inning and drove the ball 111.3 mph off the bat for a 417-foot home run to left-center field. His blast put the Tigers on the scoreboard, giving them a 1-0 lead.
Cabrera’s grand slam in the seventh inning, for a 7-5 lead, went 405 feet to left field. The ball left the bat with a 101.2 mph exit velocity. It was his 42nd multi-homer game in his 19-year MLB career. Entering Friday, Cabrera hadn’t had an extra-base hit since April 27.
His home runs were the 490th and 491st of his career, putting him nine away from 500. He has four homers this season in 28 games. Also, the 38-year-old has 2,887 hits, putting him 113 away from 3,000. He singled in the sixth inning against the Royals.
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Cabrera is two home runs shy of tying Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for 28th place in MLB history.
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.