Tigers tamed again, Royals win 2-1 for sweep

Prince Fielder had three hits for the slumping Tigers, who remained three games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. The teams begin an important three-game set Friday night in Detroit.

"You just turn the page," Tigers starter Rick Porcello said. "We're a much better team than what we showed here. Chicago comes to town tomorrow. It's a big series. Everybody should be excited. It's a chance to pick up some ground."

The Tigers had 12 hits, but 11 of them were singles. They went 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 overall.

"We scattered a lot of hits," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "We couldn't get the big hit. We got hits to lead off innings and couldn't do anything with them. We got two-out hits and that ended it. We certainly had enough hits and we had a chance there at the end."

Royals rookie Kelvin Herrera worked around a walk and a single in the ninth to earn his first career save, coaxing slugger Miguel Cabrera to ground into a game-ending double play.

Guthrie's big effort came one night after teammate Bruce Chen beat the Tigers 1-0.

"Guthrie and Chen did a great job the past two nights, especially against this offense. It's pretty tough to do, to shut them down to one run in 18 innings," Gordon said. "Our bullpen came in and did the job again. The home run was a key at-bat and gave us the win."

Kansas City roughed up Justin Verlander in the series opener and won all three games by one run.

"Close ballgames, high intensity in the ninth inning, so it was a good team win — all three of them," Gordon said.

Guthrie (3-3), who did not give up a hit to the White Sox until the eighth inning on Aug. 19 in his previous Kauffman Stadium start, held Detroit to one run on 10 hits — nine of them singles. He walked none and struck out three.

"The biggest thing was I was able to keep nine of them to singles and just allow the one extra-base hit. That was kind of the big key in allowing the hits, but not the runs," Guthrie said.

Guthrie has made eight starts for the Royals since they acquired him in a July 20 trade with Colorado for left-hander Jonathan Sanchez. He is 6-12 overall.