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Cabrera, Sanchez help Tigers beat Royals

May 3, 2015 - 10:39 PM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Anibal Sanchez took a perfect game into the sixth inning and the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals by a 6-4 margin.

Sanchez (2-3) has dominated the Royals over his career and Sunday was no different. The right-hander improved to 6-2 against Kansas City after allowing three runs on four hits over 7 1/3 innings.

He had not allowed more than one run in each of his previous seven starts versus the Royals.

"I guess I just know them really well," Sanchez said when asked why he continually confounds the Royals. "We'll see. I face them again in my next start."

Alex Avila knocked in three runs and Miguel Cabrera went 3-for-4 with a two- run homer for the Tigers, who won the final two contests of this four-game series.

Erik Kratz, Omar Infante, Mike Moustakas and Kendrys Morales had one RBI apiece for the Royals. Jeremy Guthrie (1-2) gave up six runs on 11 hits over six innings.

"I thought we could have won three out of the four, quite honestly," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "I felt we had a great opportunity to win that game last night."

The Tigers got on the board in the second. Yoenis Cespedes doubled and raced home on Avila's single to left.

Detroit tacked on three more runs in the fourth. With the bases loaded and one out, Avila hit a two-run single to right-center field. On the play, Cespedes scored on Paulo Orlando's throwing error.

Cabrera's homer in the fifth made it 6-0.

In the sixth, Orlando singled up the middle to break up Sanchez's attempt at a perfect game.

The Royals finally scored off Sanchez in the seventh. Morales walked, moved to third on Eric Hosmer's double and scored on Kratz's sacrifice fly. Infante followed with an RBI single to center.

Christian Colon's one-out single in the eighth chased Sanchez from the game. Tom Gorzelanny came in and immediately gave up a double to Alex Gordon. Moustakas' RBI groundout and Morales' run-scoring single cut the gap to 6-4. Hosmer struck out swinging to end the inning.

Joakim Soria pitched a perfect ninth for his 10th save of the season.

Game Notes

Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain dropped the appeal of his two-game suspension, which was handed down by Major League Baseball for his role in the April 23 altercation at U.S. Cellular Field. Cain started serving his penalty Sunday and will also sit out Tuesday's game against Cleveland ... Sanchez became the seventh Venezuelan in major league history to start 200 games on the mound ... Guthrie fell to 9-8 lifetime against the Tigers ... Detroit shortstop Jose Iglesias left in the sixth inning with tightness in his left groin.