Salvador Perez homered to cap a cycle by Kansas City’s first four batters of the game, and the Royals went deep three more times to beat Detroit 12-9 Sunday and drop the Tigers in the AL wild-card race.
The defending World Series champions avoided elimination from this year’s postseason race by chasing Detroit starter Matt Boyd (6-5) before he retired a hitter. Kansas City started the game with a single, a triple and a double before Perez’s two-run homer made it 4-0.
The Tigers fell 1½ games behind Baltimore for the second wild-card spot. The loss cut Cleveland’s magic number to clinch the AL Central to one — the Indians start a four-game series in Detroit on Monday night.
