Verlander falters but leads Tigers past Royals

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Justin Verlander beat Kansas City once again, surviving a shaky ninth inning Monday to deliver the Detroit Tigers a 3-2 victory over the Royals.

Austin Jackson hit a leadoff homer and Brandon Inge added a two-run shot in the fifth for the Tigers, giving their reigning American League Cy Young pitching award winner enough support when things got tight.

Verlander (1-1) allowed an RBI single by Humberto Quintero with two outs in the ninth, and then loaded the bases when he walked Mitch Maier and plunked Alcides Escobar on the elbow. Verlander came back to strike out Alex Gordon looking, sending the Royals to their fifth consecutive loss.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland had closer Jose Valverde warming up in the ninth, but he decided to stick with the AL MVP even after things got tense. Verlander ended up throwing 131 pitches while improving to 14-2 in his career against the Royals.

At Chicago, Matt Wieters homered twice, including a 10th-inning grand slam, lifting Baltimore to a come-from-behind 10-4 win over Chicago.

The White Sox took a 4-1 lead into the eighth, but Baltimore hit three solo homers against a pair of relievers to send the game into extra innings.

Chicago reliever Zach Stewart (0-1) allowed six runs in the 10th, five unearned.

Wieters went deep off Jesse Crain in the eighth to make it 4-2. Nolan Reimold and Adam Jones homered off rookie closer Hector Santiago in the ninth to tie it.

At Anaheim, California, Kendrys Morales hit his first homer in nearly two years and drove in four runs, and Jered Weaver recorded his 1,000th career strikeout while pitching five-hit ball into the seventh inning of Los Angeles’ 6-0 victory over Oakland.

Morales followed his three-run homer in the first inning with an eighth-inning double to score Albert Pujols, who went 2 for 4 with a double. Pujols still hasn’t homered in 10 games with the Angels, but his new cleanup hitter provided plenty of power as Los Angeles opened a weeklong homestand with just its second win in six games.

Morales staked Weaver (2-0) to a healthy lead, and the AL Cy Young runner-up retired his first 11 batters.

Weaver struck out six, rolling his career total into quadruple digits when he fanned Josh Reddick in the sixth inning. 

At Boston, James Shields allowed four hits in 8 1-3 innings as Tampa Bay beat Boston Red, 1-0, to avoid a four-game sweep.

The only run came when Daniel Bard (0-2) walked Evan Longoria on four pitches with the bases loaded in the seventh. (AP)