Rick Porcello was cruising toward his 12th win of the season, and left the game in the 7th with a 3-1 lead and two runners on. Phil Coke was summoned from the bullpen to get out the left-handed hitting Mike Moustakas who was hitting .071 against lefties this season. Naturally, Coke hung a curveball which Moustakas lined into right for an RBI single. The Royals would score three in the 7th and tie the game at 3-3.

Daniel Schlereth would pitch the 8th and 9th for the Tigers, and held the Royals scoreless. The Tigers took the lead in the 10th when former Royal Wilson Betemit walked to lead off the inning. He was replaced by pinch-runner Andy Dirks, who took second base on a wild pitch after Austin Jackson failed to sacrifice and struck out on 3 pitches. Brennan Boesch smoked a base hit up the middle to score Dirks to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead.
Closer Jose Valverde dispached the Royals 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th to earn his 31st save in 31 attempts this season.

The Tigers jumped out to an early lead as Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch led off the game with back-to-back triples. Magglio Ordonez hit a sacrafice fly to put the Tigers ahead 2-0 in the first. Alex Avila hit a 432-foot bomb to dead center field to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. It's a shame that the bullpen couldn't hold the lead to get Porcello his 12th win, but the bottom line is that the Tigers did win and hold onto a 3 game lead over second-place Cleveland, who beat Texas tonight.

The Tigers will send Justin Verlander to the mound tomorrow night against the Royals at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. Verlander is 15-5 and will face the Royals' Danny Duffy, who is 3-4. 7:10 first pitch.

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