Tigers fall to Royals after GM Dombrowski’s departure

DETROIT: Salvador Perez homered and drove in three runs as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 5-1 in Major League Baseball on Tuesday.
The game was overshadowed by the announcement that Dave Dombrowski was being replaced as Detroit’s general manager by his top assistant, Al Avila. In 14 years with the Tigers, Dombrowski took one of the worst clubs in the game and took it to six postseason appearances, including World Series losses in 2006 and 2012.
Detroit came into the season looking for a fifth straight American League Central division title, but now trail the Royals by 12 1/2 games.
Justin Verlander (1-4) struggled in his ninth start of the season, allowing five runs on 10 hits in seven innings.
In other games, Brian McCann and Chris Young hit three-run homers during a nine-run burst in the seventh inning as the New York Yankees beat Boston 13-3, Anthony DeSclafani struck out a career-high nine batters as Cincinnati topped league-leading St. Louis 3-2, and the Chicago Cubs beat Pittsburgh 5-0 for their sixth straight win.
The Yankees were down 2-1 and held to three singles going into the sixth when they suddenly came alive. The AL East leaders wound up scoring in double figures for the fourth time in seven games — they’d gone more than a month without doing it until a 21-5 rout at Texas last week.
Mark Teixeira hit a pair of RBI singles and McCann, Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran and Chase Headley added late doubles as the Yankees won for the 11th time in 15 games.
In Cincinnati, DeSclafani gave up seven hits and two runs in six innings in his second straight impressive start over the Cardinals.
Last Wednesday in St. Louis, DeSclafani (7-7) gave up only three hits in seven innings of a 1-0 win.
Aroldis Chapman fanned two in the ninth — his fastball topping out at 101 mph — for his 23rd save in 24 chances. The left-hander has converted 56 consecutive save opportunities at Great American Ball Park since his last failure in September 2012.
Chicago matched its longest winning streak of the season and moved 11 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2008 season.
Jake Arrieta pitched seven strong innings and Anthony Rizzo tied a career high with four hits for the Cubs.
Arrieta (12-6) allowed two singles — Andrew McCutchen in the fourth and Starling Marte in the seventh — while striking out five and walking three. In his last nine starts, Arrieta is 6-1 with a 1.38 ERA.
Elsewhere, Cleveland rookie Giovanny Urshela hit a two-run homer in the 12th inning after teammate Carlos Carrasco pitched one-hit ball through the first nine as the Indians beat the Los Angeles Angels 2-1.
Eric Campbell’s tiebreaking pinch single and Juan Lagares’ two-run triple highlighted a four-run eighth inning that helped send the New York Mets to a 5-1 win over Miami. The NL East-leading Mets won their fifth consecutive game.
In Washington, Wilson Ramos blooped a two-run single to right with one out in the bottom of the eighth that helped the Nationals to a 5-4 victory over Arizona.
Philadelphia’s Maikel Franco hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the seventh inning to lead the Phillies to a 6-2 victory over the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
Marcus Semien hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning to help Chris Bassitt earn his first win this season as Oakland topped Baltimore 5-0.
Also, Texas held off Houston 4-3, Toronto beat Minnesota 3-1, San Francisco defeated Atlanta 8-3, Tampa Bay routed the Chicago White Sox 11-3, Seattle topped Colorado 10-4, and Milwaukee beat San Diego 4-1.