Posted on 09/23/2003 6:19:18 PM PDT by Hillary's Lovely Legs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Detroit Tigers set an American League record with their 118th loss, falling to the Kansas City Royals 12-6 Monday night as Raul Ibanez and Rondell White drove in three runs each.
Detroit (38-118) has lost 10 straight, one short of its season high, and 16 of its last 17. The Tigers must win five of their final six games to avoid tying the post-1900 major league record set by the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120.
White went 4-for-4, Carlos Beltran homered, and Joe Randa went 3-for-3 for the Royals, who trail AL Central-leading Minnesota by five games with six to play.
With its 82nd win, Kansas City ensured its first winning year since going 64-51 in the strike-shortened 1994 season.
Jeremy Affeldt (7-6), the second of four Royals pitchers, threw two innings of scoreless.
Gary Knotts (3-8) gave up six runs, five hits and three walks in four-plus innings.
Detroit fell behind 4-1, then tied the game with a three-run fifth before allowing a pair of runs in the bottom half and five in the sixth.
After the Tigers tied the score in the fifth, White and Relaford hit RBI singles in the bottom half.
Then in the sixth, Mike Sweeney hit an RBI double off Franklyn German and Raul Ibanez hit a run-scoring single. White followed with a two-run double off Chris Spurling and Angel Berroa singled in a run off Brian Schmack.
Royals starter Paul Abbott left in the fifth inning after straining the oblique muscle in his left side.
Notes:@ Dmitri Young's RBI single in the fifth broke Affeldt's streak of 31 batters faced without a hit. ... The Tigers recalled INF Omar Infante from Triple-A Toledo. In 61 previous games with Detroit this season, Infante hit .213 with no home runs and seven RBIs. ... Detroit's Alex Sanchez was out on an unusual interference call in the sixth. He bunted up the first-base line with a runner on second, but his bat hit the ball in fair territory.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
La-who-sers!
Hopefully, the football team will do better.
LVM
When asked about his team's performance of late, he said, "I think we're running out of gas."
That's Yogi Berra / Casey Stengel territory.
longjack
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.