Royals pounce on K-Rod in ninth, rally past Tigers

AMERICAN LEAGUE ROYALS 7, TIGERS 4

DETROIT — Francisco Rodriguez's rough ninth inning hurt the Detroit Tigers in the AL wild-card race.

Paulo Orlando hit a tying, two-run double and Eric Hosmer followed with a three-run homer against Rodriguez, capping a ninth-inning comeback Saturday that led the Royals over the Tigers 7-4.

Detroit's five-game winning streak was stopped, and the Tigers dropped a half-game behind Baltimore for the second AL wild card berth.

"It's a bad position to fail the way that I failed," Rodriguez said. "Just unacceptable. This one hurts, big time. I let my team down."

Given a 4-2 lead, Rodriguez (34) allowed singles to Alex Gordon and Hunter Dozier before Orlando's double. Cheslor Cuthbert walked and Hosmer hit his 24th homer.

"We've got eight games left. This is going to be a dogfight," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "We lost this one, but that doesn't mean we can't come back tomorrow and win."

Ausmus did not consider replacing Rodriguez after Orlando's double. Rodriguez blew a save for the fifth time in 49 opportunities.

"Frankie had an off day," Ausmus said. "You're going to have an off day from time to time. We wouldn't be here without him."

Kansas City stopped a four-game losing streak, and its tragic number for elimination from postseason contention remained at three. The Royals would be the fourth straight World Series champion failing to reach the playoffs after winning a title the previous season.

Wade Davis (2-1) pitched a onehit eighth and Kelvin Herrera, Kansas City's seventh pitcher, got three straight outs for his 12th save in 15 chances, ending a game that took 3 hours, 50 minutes.

Saturday’s games NATIONAL LEAGUE St. Louis 10, CHI Cubs 4 Washington 6, Pittsburgh 1 Miami 6, Atlanta 4 Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 1 Philadelphia 10, NY Mets 8 San Francisco 9, San Diego 6 (10) LA Dodgers 14, Colorado 1 NATIONAL LEAGUE

CARDINALS 10, CUBS 4 The St. Louis Cardinals have a lot to accomplish if they want to return to Chicago in two weeks for a rematch of last year’s NL Division Series. They would have to qualify for one of the wild-card spots, then win the single-elimination playoff game. If they do, the Cardinals may be the one club that won’t be fazed by Wrigley Field and the Cubs. Yadier Molina AMERICAN LEAGUE Kansas City 7, Detroit 4 Texas 5, Oakland 0 Toronto 3, NY Yankees 0 Boston 6, Tampa Bay 4 CHI White Sox 8, Cleveland 1 LA Angels 10, Houston 4 Minnesota 3, Seattle 2 INTERLEAGUE Baltimore 6, Arizona 1 drove in four runs, Stephen Piscotty homered and the Cardinals boosted their playoff hopes by getting to Jason Hammel early in a 10-4 rout of Chicago on Saturday. Randal Grichuk added three RBIs and Jhonny Peralta had three hits and scored three runs for the Cardinals, who stopped a two-game skid and moved into a tie with San Francisco for the final NL wild-card spot pending the Giants’ game at San Diego.