Lucas Duda had three hits and drove in four, the Royals pounded a trio of homers and Kansas City beat the Detroit Tigers 10-6 on Thursday to open their four-game series.
Salvador Perez, Jorge Soler and Alex Gordon each went deep for the Royals, who have quietly gotten on track offensively after a miserable start.
Everyone in the starting lineup had at least one hit except for Cheslor Cuthbert, and he came within a couple feet of a home run in the seventh inning.
Kansas City pounded out 13 hits in all against Mike Fiers and the Tigers bullpen. Reliever Chad Bell (0-1) allowed five runs and five hits in 1 2/3 innings.
Eric Skoglund wasn't much better on the mound for Kansas City, but Kyle McCarthy (3-0) wiggled out of a key sixth-inning jam before pitching a clean seventh to earn the victory in relief.
Nick Castellanos homered and had three hits for Detroit, while slugging DH Miguel Cabrera left with a strained hamstring in the sixth inning. The severity of the injury was not known.
The Tigers and Royals spent most of the afternoon trading stiff jabs.
Kansas City scored two in the first on singles by Duda and Jon Jay, then Detroit scored two in the third on Jeimer Candelario's double. The Royals answered with two in the bottom half on Perez's shot to left field, and both teams scored a run in the fourth inning.
Detroit finally knocked Skoglund from the game in the fifth, when Castellanos went deep and Jose Iglesias drove in a run off reliever Scott Barlow to tie it 5-5.
Fiers was gone after five runs and six hits and a walk in four innings, while Skoglund left after allowing five runs and eight hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.
Soler pushed the Royals back on top with his soaring homer to left later in the fifth, and they kept pulling away from there. Duda added a bases-loaded, two-out single in the sixth to continue giving Kansas City's bullpen plenty of support.
MIGGY LEAVES IN 6TH
Cabrera was trying to advance to second base in the sixth inning when he pulled up and grabbed his right hamstring. The two-time MVP had returned to the lineup Thursday after missing three games with biceps spasms. INF Niko Goodrum replaced him in the lineup.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Tigers: DH Victor Martinez got the day off to rest a swollen ankle. ... LHP Daniel Norris (left groin injury) had a muscular decompression procedure Thursday. He's expected to miss up to 12 weeks.
Royals: 3B Mike Moustakas was in the lineup for the second straight day. He was hit in the forearm by a pitch earlier this week in Boston and missed some time with a nasty bruise.
UP NEXT
RHP Ian Kennedy hopes to get some rare run support from the Royals when he takes the mound Friday night against Detroit. LHP Francisco Liriano will be on the hill for the Tigers.
