Tigers rally from early deficit, beat Royals 5-4

DETROIT (AP) — JaCoby Jones hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning, and Detroit's bullpen came through again in a 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

A night after pitching six scoreless innings in a win over the Royals, the Tigers' relievers held Kansas City without a baserunner for four. Detroit rallied from a 4-0 deficit thanks in large part to Jones, who doubled twice before connecting off Ian Kennedy (0-1) for his third homer of the year.

“Obviously, it felt great,” Jones said. “We were battling. Our pitching staff kept us in the game. They were grinding, getting outs.”

Jonathan Schoop also went deep for the Tigers. Maikel Franco hit two doubles and a single for Kansas City, and Whit Merrifield had two hits and scored twice.

Bryan Garcia (1-0) earned his first big league win, one of four Detroit relievers who pitched in the game. Joe Jimenez worked the ninth for his fourth save.

“Bryan was fantastic tonight,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Came in and the ball was really jumping out of his hand.”

Danny Duffy allowed only three hits in five innings for the Royals, but one of them was Schoop's two-run shot in the fifth, which barely made it past a leaping Merrifield at the wall in right and tied the game at 4. Duffy struck out eight with one walk.

“I felt confident with what I was doing out there, it just didn’t go our way and it’s unacceptable,” Duffy said. “To have that kind of stuff tonight, got to go deeper in the game, man. Brutal. Got to go deeper in the game.”

Merrifield is now 22 for 42 against Detroit's Matthew Boyd after going 2 for 3 against him Wednesday. He led off the game with a double and scored on Franco's two-base hit. Merrifield also singled to start the third and scored on a...

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