Bobby Witt Jr. went 3-for-4 with two home runs and tied a career high with six RBIs to help the Kansas City Royals win their fifth straight, 10-3 against the visiting Detroit Tigers on Tuesday.
Royals starting pitcher Alec Marsh (4-1) went six innings, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out five.
Detroit starter Casey Mize (1-3) gave up six runs on nine hits with a pair of strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings. The Tigers have lost three straight and five of their past seven.
Witt Jr. notched his second home run of the night in the sixth inning, belting a solo shot to center field to make it 9-3 Kansas City. He gave the hosts a 5-0 lead in the second when he pounded a three-run shot 468 feet to the center field deck.
Maikel Garcia, who went 4-for-5, led off the first with a triple and scored on Witt Jr.’s ensuing single for a 1-0 lead. After Vinnie Pasquantino flied out to right field to advance Witt to third, Salvador Perez’s single to right field drove him in to make it 2-0.
Kansas City then sent nine batters to the plate in the second.
After Witt Jr.’s home run with one out, Pasquantino doubled off the center field wall, went to third on a Perez single and scored to extend the lead to 6-0 on a sacrifice fly by Michael Massey.
Mize was pulled after giving up a line drive single to left field on the next at-bat.
Hunter Renfroe walked to lead off the third and scored on Garcia’s line-drive triple. Witt Jr. brought Garcia home with a sacrifice fly, putting Kansas City ahead 8-0.
Detroit finally broke through in the fourth.
After drawing a leadoff walk, Mark Canha advanced to third on a Wenceel Perez single to right field. Then, with one out, Matt Vierling knocked a sharp line-drive triple to center, scoring Canha and Perez to cut it to 8-2. Colt Keith followed with a ground ball single up the middle to drive in Vierling and narrow it to 8-3.
Renfroe made it 10-3 when he added a solo home run to left-center field in the seventh inning.
Keith went 3-for-4 for the Tigers.