Rodriguez Does His Share for Tigers, 13-8

Ivan Rodriguez was supposed to get a day off. Unfortunately for the Kansas City Royals, the Tigers catcher had to play.

Rodriguez drove in five runs in the last two innings and Detroit rallied from a six-run deficit to win, 13-8, Thursday, handing the Royals their 13th consecutive loss.

Vance Wilson was scheduled to catch the finale of the four-game series to give Rodriguez a rest, but Wilson stepped on a ball and injured himself Wednesday night.

“I’m ready to play every day,” Rodriguez said. “Vance got hurt and it’s my job to go back there and go to work.”

Rodriguez hit a two-run triple in the eighth to erase Kansas City’s 8-6 lead and a three-run homer in a five-run ninth. Craig Monroe and Marcus Thames started the ninth with solo homers off Elmer Dessens (2-5).

Making the Royals’ loss sting even worse was the fact they knocked Mike Maroth out of the game in the first inning with three consecutive home runs and took a 6-0 lead.

“We’ve done this before. This isn’t anything new,” Royals Manager Buddy Bell said. “I don’t know how many games during the stretch where we’ve done exactly what we did today.”

The 13-game losing streak is the second-longest for Kansas City, which lost 19 in a row last season. The Royals are a major league-worst 10-35 and drawing comparisons to some of the most dreadful teams in history.

Only Boston in 1932, Baltimore in 1988 and Washington in 1904 had worse records (9-36) after 45 games.

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Different directions

How Detroit and Kansas City compare since May 12:

*--* DETROIT KANSAS CITY 12-1 Record 0-13 456 At-bats 445 136 Hits 118 298 Batting average 265 19 Home runs 14 118 Innings pitched 112 113 Hits given up 150 3.13 Earned-run average 7.63 70 Strikeouts 64 43 Walks given up 57

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