Five batters into Tuesday’s game against the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander was starting to wonder if his luck was going to be horrible all night.
Verlander had allowed hits to all five batters, including three straight bloopers, and found himself down 3-0 without recording an out.
He got out of the inning without further damage, then settled down with six scoreless innings where the Royals got four singles and a walk. The Tigers rallied behind homers from J.D. Martinez and Miguel Cabrera for a 5-3 victory.
Three relievers finished for the Tigers, with Justin Wilson pitching the ninth for his seventh save.
The win was Detroit’s second straight after an eight-game losing streak.
Matt Strahm (2-5) gave up five runs and six hits in 3 2/3 innings for the Royals.
Whit Merrifield started the game with a ground-rule double over the 420-foot sign in center and the next four batters singled to give Kansas City a three-run lead with no outs in the first.
However, Mike Moustakas grounded into a force at second, Brandon Moss struck out and Alcides Escobar tapped back to the mound.
Martinez led off the bottom of the second with his 12th homer, and Cabrera put the Tigers ahead 4-3 with a three-run, opposite-field homer in the third.
Peter Moylan replaced Strahm with runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth, but Ian Kinsler lined an RBI single up the middle to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.
Tigers centerfielder Mikie Mahtook received a standing ovation and a hug from Verlander when he ran down Salvador Perez’s hit to the deepest part of the park, making a leaping catch against the wall in right-centerfield to end the fifth inning.
Mahtook felt that he owed Verlander a play after not getting to Merrifield’s first-inning double.
