Royals End Futility Against the Tigers

The Kansas City Royals finally got the best of the Detroit Tigers.

Joey Gathright drove in four runs, Scott Elarton pitched six effective innings and Kansas City beat Detroit, 9-6, Sunday for its first win against the Tigers this season.

Emil Brown also drove in two runs for Kansas City, which had lost 11 consecutive games against Detroit this season. The Tigers’ 10-game home winning streak also was ended.

“It’s been a long four days here,” Royals Manager Buddy Bell said.

“We won one, could have won three. But that’s the way our season has gone.”

Marcus Thames homered twice and drove in five runs, and Carlos Guillen hit a home run for the Tigers, who have baseball’s best record at 62-30.

“Collectively, we just weren’t very good,” Detroit Manager Jim Leyland said. “That includes and starts with the manager and the coaches. We just weren’t good today.”

Thames hit a two-run homer in the sixth and a three-run drive in the eighth. He has 19 homers this season.