Guthrie leads team pitching effort in Royals' 3-2 win over Tigers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Jeremy Guthrie got by with a lot of help from his friends Monday night.

Guthrie and four Kansas City relievers combined to beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 Monday night as the Royals won their sixth straight.

Guthrie (7-3) limited the Tigers to six hits and two runs over 6 1/3 innings. He walked three without striking out a batter.

Relievers Aaron Crow, Tim Collins, Kelvin Herrera and Greg Holland held the Tigers to one hit over 2 2/3 scoreless innings. Holland struck out two of the three batters he faced to log his 13th save in 15 chances.

"Just a phenomenal job on our part in the pitching department," Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Guthrie allowed a two-run homer to Miguel Cabrera in the third, but nothing else.

"Guthrie made one mistake to Cabrera," Yost said. "You make a mistake to Cabrera and he's going to hit it a long way. He got a curveball up on him. He did a great job from that point in really limiting the damage. I think we had 18 fly ball outs, but the good thing was they were outs. He kept the ball in the ball park outside the Cabrera home run."

When Guthrie gave up a single and hit a batter in the seventh, Crow was summoned to face Torii Hunter, who already had two hits, and Cabrera.

"Crow was phenomenal coming in in the seventh with two of the toughest hitters coming up," Yost said. "Crow against Hunter and Cabrera with runners on first and second in a one-run game - to be able to get out of that inning unscathed was huge."

Doug Fister (5-4) took the loss despite throwing a complete game. He threw 103 pitches, allowed three runs on nine hits, walked none and struck out three. He is winless in his past five starts.

"We probably hit too many balls in the air, but we played good and pitched very well, " Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Fister did a terrific job. Threw a complete game, as well as you can pitch on the road.

"We just didn't muster many opportunities to score for him. That happens. Guthrie was good. He mixed his pitches and moved the ball around. There's nothing fancy about him. He throws this when you're looking for that and he throws that when you're looking for this. He got his breaking ball over when he was behind in the count. We just didn't get enough hits."

All of the game's scoring came in the third inning. The Tigers got on the board first when Cabrera hit a two-run homer with Hunter aboard. Hunter had doubled for his second hit of the game. It was Cabrera's 11th career home run at Kauffman Stadium and his 18th this season.

Cabrera tops the majors with 50 runs, 90 hits and 69 RBIs.

"They hit a lot of balls to the warning track," Guthrie said. "I utilized a lot of distance to get my outs, but avoiding the big inning, pitching around the walks I had.

"I didn't have great stuff, but was able to get them to hit it to just short enough that we could make the plays."

The Royals answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning.

Alcides Escobar started the rally with his 12th infield single. Eric Hosmer grounded a single to right field, and Salvador Perez extended his hitting streak to six games with a triple to right-center, scoring both. Lorenzo Cain beat out a slow roller to deep shortstop for a two-out single to bring home Perez.

"Even when you make a good pitch it can still get hit," Fister said. "That's the way the ball bounces. I made some good pitches when I needed to and they found some holes."

NOTES: Tigers RHP Anibal Sanchez, who missed a Sunday start with shoulder tightness, likely will return to the rotation for the weekend series at Minnesota. ... Detroit CF Austin Jackson, who is on the disabled list with a pulled left hamstring, began a rehab assignment Monday with Triple-A Toledo. He went 0-for-5 with a walk and struck out three times. ...Royals CF Jarrod Dyson, who is rehabbing his ankle sprain with Class AAA Omaha, went 3-for-3 with two walks and stole four bases in a 10-7 victory at Rochester....The Royals signed first-round pick SS Hunter Dozier to $2.2 million, which is about $940,000 less than the allotted signing bonus for an eighth overall pick. ... The Tigers recalled RHP Evan Reed, who struck out 38 in 32 innings with Toledo. This is his second stint with Detroit, which claimed him April 3 off waivers from the Marlins. ... Cabrera hiked his RBI total to 770 as a Tiger, passing Kyle Gibson for 18th place on Detroit's all-time list.