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Inge helps Tigers walk off with a win

Jul 22, 2007 - 3:39 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Brandon Inge picked up the slack for the Detroit Tigers' struggling bullpen.

Inge's walk-off, two-run homer in the 10th inning lifted the Tigers to a 10-8 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.

Craig Monroe broke out of his offensive funk with a home run and four RBI and Ryan Rayburn hit his first career blast for Detroit.

Tigers won for the fifth time in their last six contests and maintained a slim one-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central.

Inge got to Royals righthander Joakim Soria (1-3), following Sean Casey's one-out single with his 12th blast of the season, a lined shot that just cleared the wall in left field.

"I had been trying to be aggressive and hit the ball on the screws," Inge said. "I had gotten a lot of good swings and popped the ball up.

"I don't think we took advantage of situations where we should have scored more runs."

The homer broke up a string of 17 straight scoreless outings for the righthander - a span of 19 1/3 innings during which he had allowed opponents a miniscule .108 batting average against.

"It was going to happen sooner or later," Soria said. "Tonight was the night, that's baseball."

The Royals got to Tigers closer Todd Jones in the ninth, tagging the veteran for a pair of runs. John Buck and Tony Pena, Jr. led off the frame with back-to-back singles, and David DeJesus' RBI groundout cut the Tigers' lead to 8-7. Mark Grudzielanek followed with a single to center, which allowed the speedy Pena to come around for the tying run.

Detroit righthander Chad Durbin (7-3) got credit for the win after a scoreless top of the 10th.

Monroe doubled to snap a 1-1 deadlock in the first, and smacked a three-run homer to snap a 2-2 tie in the third. The 30-year-old outfielder has been the subject of trade rumors recently, as Detroit looks to add bullpen help for the stretch run.

"We're not gonna forget about him," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of Monroe. "We need him and if he can get it going, I think that will be a big plus for us and I think he will."

In the midst of a sub-par season, Monroe's average dipped to .219 - his lowest mark since May 5 - and he had not homered since June 1 before connecting off Royals' starter Jorge De La Rosa.

Detroit starter Justin Verlander was in line for his 12th win despite yielding five runs - four earned - in 5 1/3 innings. The second-year righthander struck out seven while surrendering seven hits and issuing a pair of walks.

"Verlander got to the point where I didn't like what I was seeing," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "His velocity went down there pretty consistently. He said he was fine so that's good news. I didn't know if it was just one of those nights where you're arm is a little dead or what, but like I said, I didn't like what I was seeing."

He entered Saturday's contest with a 5-0 career record and 1.58 ERA in six career starts against Kansas City.

However, the Royals are starting to show signs that they are different than in year's past. Saturday's loss snapped a three-game winning streak, but the team has gone 23-19 since falling a season-worst 16 games below .500 (19-35) on May 30.

"We had the chances," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "We just couldn't make it happen."

"We never want to make it easy on anyone, but we are going to need more quality starts if were going to do anything."

Rookie Billy Butler drove in a run for the fourth straight game for Kansas City and has plated 20 in his last 13 starts.

Butler put his team on top in the first, plating DeJesus with a single to center.

Raburn's leadoff blast for Detroit tied the contest and Monroe's double chased Magglio Ordonez home with the go-ahead run in the first.

Monroe's homer pushed the advantage to 5-2 after the Royals scored on a passed ball in the third, and the Tigers added a pair in the fifth on RBI hits by Gary Sheffield and Ivan Rodriguez.

Placido Polanco's solo homer in the eighth gave the Tigers an 8-5 edge.

The Royals got a solo shot from Buck in the fifth and Emil Brown plated a pair with a single in the seventh. Rookie Alex Gordon cut the lead to 8-6 in the eighth with a run-scoring fielder's choice, setting the stage for the ninth-inning heroics.

"They scored early and often, we scored late," Brown said. "We got back into the game, but couldn't put it away."