KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Joey Wendle singled in a run with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Tampa Bay Rays over the Kansas City Royals 6-5 on Tuesday night.
Johnny Field and Jesus Sucre led off the inning with singles against Kelvin Herrera (1-1). Herrera retired the next two batters before Wendle laced a single to left.
Jonny Venters (1-0) got two outs for his first victory since Sept. 27, 2012 while with Atlanta against the Mets. The left-hander had been out since 2012 due to four major elbow surgeries, including three Tommy John operations, before returning to the majors this season.
Alex Colome worked a spotless ninth for his eighth save.
The Royals lost their fourth straight and sixth in seven.
C.J. Cron hammered Ian Kennedy's first pitch to center for a two-run shot during the Rays' three-run first. Cron has reached base in a career-high 21 consecutive games and singled in the second for his fifth multihit game in his last seven games.
The Rays batted around in the first, which also included Adeiny Hechavarria's run-producing single scoring Matt Duffy, who had doubled. Kennedy struck out Sucre with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Left-hander Anthony Banda, who was making his Rays debut after being acquired in a February three-team trade from Arizona, threw only 52 pitches in five innings, allowing three runs and six hits. He became the eighth Rays' starter in 40 games this season, equaling the number of starters they used in 2017.
Kennedy threw 34 of his 101 pitches in the first inning. He labored through six innings, yielding five runs on seven hits while striking out six. Span went down looking to end the sixth for Kennedy's 1,500th strikeout.
TIGERS 9, INDIANS 8 JaCoby Jones homered and doubled, and Detroit rallied in a five-run seventh as Andrew Miller (1-2) allowed two inherited runners to score and gave up two runs of his own. Pete Kozma hit a tying, two-run double, and Miller walked John Hicks with the bases loaded. Cleveland led 4-0 on Brandon Guyer’s first-inning grand slam and 8-4 before Detroit rallied for its third straight win. Miller faced six batters, giving up two doubles and three walks while getting one out.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CUBS 3, BRAVES 2 Cubs catcher Willson Contreras helped Chicago throw out two runners at home plate and another at third base before rallying for two runs in the ninth inning. After Ronald Acuna Jr. homered against Carl Edwards Jr. (2-0) for a 2-1 lead in the eighth, Albert Almora Jr. and Addison Russell hit consecutive doubles and Ben Zobrist came through with a two-out, run-scoring single off Arodys Vizcaino (1-2). Brandon Morrow got three outs for his 10th save.
MARLINS 4, DODGERS 2 The Los Angeles Dodgers went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position against Wei-Yin Chen and four relievers and were beaten by a last-place team for the fifth straight game, losing to the Miami Marlins. The NL champions managed only five hits after being swept in a four-game series at home by woeful Cincinnati. Alex Wood (0-4) lost despite allowing only one earned run in six innings for the Dodgers (16-25), who are off to their worst start in 60 years. Miami (15-26) could pass them by sweeping the three-game series.
INTERLEAGUE
TWINS 4, CARDINALS 1 Bobby Wilson hit his first home run since Sept. 21, 2016, for Tampa Bay, a two-run drive off Luke Gregerson that capped a three-run seventh. Jose Berrios (4-4) surrendered one run on two hits and struck out 10, leaving after hitting Kolten Wong with a pitch with one out in the eighth. Addison Reed struck out both batters he faced and Fernando Rodney retired three straight batters for his eighth save.