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Santiago's 10th-inning HR lifts Tigers over Royals

Aug 31, 2011 - 3:51 AM

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Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - A game dominated by pitching ended with Ramon Santiago taking Aaron Crow deep over the right-field wall in the 10th, giving the AL Central-leading Tigers a dramatic 2-1 win over the Royals.

Doug Fister and Jeff Francis were brilliant in their outings, but neither factored in the decision, which evened this four-game set with two games to play.

Joaquin Benoit (4-3) kept the Royals off the board in the ninth and 10th frames, and Santiago stepped in against Crow (3-4) and finished off the visitors with his fourth home run of the season.

"I knew I hit it pretty good," Santiago said. "I'm going to enjoy it."

Santiago entered as a pinch-runner for Magglio Ordonez in the eighth inning after he knocked in Ryan Raburn with the tying run.

The ending overshadowed a pitching clinic by Fister and Francis.

The Royals pounded out 18 hits in a 9-5 win in Monday's opener, but went down in order against Fister in each of the first six innings on Tuesday.

"He had no-hit stuff," Royals manager Ned Yost said of Fister "He was nasty."

Alex Gordon ended the trend in the seventh with a leadoff double off the wall in left-center. A sacrifice bunt moved Gordon to third and Billy Butler's fly ball to center was deep enough to break the scoreless tie.

Francis was nearly as stingy during Fister's pursuit of perfection, allowing just one hit and one walk before putting two on in the seventh.

Greg Holland retired Victor Martinez and Alex Avila to escape the seventh unscathed, but the reliever gave up three singles in the eighth, the last of which was Ordonez's game-tying bleeder up the middle.

Fister wound up allowing four hits with no walks and six strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings, while Francis went 6 1/3 frames and gave up two hits and one free pass.

Game Notes

Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a single in the eighth...In his 26 previous starts with Seattle and Detroit this year, Fister received 2.63 runs of support, the lowest among all American League pitchers...The Royals were looking to win three straight for the first time since a four-game stretch from July 19-23.






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