KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Dairon Blanco tripled, doubled twice, singled and drove in three runs and the Kansas City Royals overcame Spencer Torkelson’s two-homer night to outscore the Detroit Tigers 11-10 on Tuesday.
“You have to get ready every day,” Blanco, who ranked the day as his best ever in baseball, said through an interpreter. “A day like today you just get ready and take advantage of it.”
Blanco tripled and scored to help the Royals tie it at 2 in the third, and had a run-scoring bunt hit to cap a five-run fourth. He doubled and scored in both the sixth and eighth innings for his first career four-hit game.
“Every one of the hits was important,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “That’s what stood out to me. It was nice for him because I know he’s been pressing a little bit. To see him do that was rewarding.”
Blanco admitted he was trying for a home run to complete the cycle in his final at-bat, falling a few feet short of his first career homer, instead settling for an RBI double that made it 10-6.
“I definitely went out there looking for it,” Blanco said. “As soon as it left the bat I thought it had a chance, but as soon as I saw it hit dirt I thought I needed to find more push ups.”
Seven consecutive Royals reached safely in the fourth en route to a 7-2 lead. Freddy Fermin and Drew Waters had RBI extra-base hits and Edward Olivares slapped a two-run single through a drawn-in infield.
“Tenacity to keep adding on throughout, being advantageous there to keep grinding through,” Quatraro said. “We needed every single run we had.”
In the first inning, Torkelson blasted Daniel Lynch’s sinker 430 feet to left for his first homer since July 2 and a 2-0 lead. He had a three-run shot — his 14th of the season — to left in the fifth to cut it to 7-5.
“I was looking for the mistake and got a couple,” Torkelson said. “There was a lot of good in that game. At the end of the day we had a lot of things go for us, but they just capitalized on a couple more mistakes than we did.”
Torkelson added a seventh-inning double. He had career highs with five RBIs and 10 total bases.
Lynch (3-4) completed five innings, allowing five runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out three.
“I didn’t think I threw the ball that well,” Lynch said. “Two mistakes were magnified and I didn’t get ahead of guys as much as I would have liked to. Stuff wasn’t really where I’d like it, but the main thing is we go out there and win.”
Detroit scored four in the ninth as Scott Barlow walked three but escaped by retiring Riley Greene on a fly ball with two Tigers on base.
“It was nice to see us respond,” Tiger manager A.J. Hinch said. “Good at-bat after good at-bat against a good pitcher, so that’s a good sign. We had the right guy up at the end and a chance for a big swing and came up one run short.”
Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (0-1) made his third start of the season after missing almost a year after surgery on his left elbow. He allowed seven runs on eight hits, striking out three over four innings.
Javier Báez doubled and scored in the sixth for the Tigers. Báez had three hits and stole two bases.
Maikel Garcia drove in four runs for Kansas City.
TRANSACTIONS
Royals OF Edward Olivares (left oblique strain) was activated from the 10-day IL. 2B/OF Samad Taylor was optioned to Triple-A Omaha.
UP NEXT
Tigers LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (5-5, 2.70) was set to face LHP Ryan Yarbrough (2-4, 5.29) on Wednesday.
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