Guillen's walk-off homer fuels Tigers past Royals

DETROIT (AP) -- Carlos Guillen just wanted to make contact

against Jeremy Affeldt, and then did much better.

Guillen hit a game-winning homer off Affeldt with one out in the

bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Detroit Tigers a 10-9

victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

The Tigers overcame a 4-0 deficit against Kansas City for the

second straight game and earned their 10th consecutive win over the

Royals this season.

Guillen drove a 1-2 pitch from Affeldt (4-6) down the line and

over the left-field fence for his 11th homer.

"I wanted to be patient and put the ball into play," said

Guillen, who hit a low curve.

Affeldt was disappointed but gave all the credit to Guillen.

"Threw the pitch I wanted to throw," he said. "He beat me on

it."

Todd Jones (2-5) earned the victory by pitching a scoreless

ninth. He struck out Mark Teahen with runners on first and second

to end the inning.

"I was trying to mix up the Royals and Teahen with different

pitches," Jones said. "I got lucky and snapped a fastball for the

strikeout."

Craig Monroe was 3-for-4 with two RBI and Marcus Thames had a

two-run triple for Detroit.

Teahen had a three-run homer and a double, Angel Berroa homered

and drove in two runs, and David DeJesus had a three-run double for

Kansas City.

Detroit's Kenny Rogers, who got the start for the AL in this

week's All-Star game, lasted only four innings in his first outing

following the break. He allowed five runs and six hits, walked one

and struck out three in his shortest stint this season.

Royals' starter Mark Redman gave up four runs and five hits in

five plus innings. He walked three and didn't strike out a batter.

Detroit scored three times in the seventh inning to break open a

6-6 game. Brandon Inge had an RBI single, Monroe added a

run-scoring double, and Ambiorix Burgos balked in another run.

But Kansas City tied it against Joel Zumaya in the eighth on

DeJesus' two-out, bases-loaded double.

"You've just got to keep playing," Tigers' manager Jim Leyland

said. "We fought back, gave it back to them and fought back

again."

Kansas City jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second.

Berroa singled in a run, and Teahen hit a three-run homer -- his

second shot in two nights and ninth of the season.

Detroit cut the lead in half in the third on Thames' two-out,

two-run triple, but the Royals made it 5-2 in the fourth on

Berroa's solo home run.

The Tigers pulled within two runs in the fourth on Monroe's

two-out RBI double before Emil Brown's RBI single the next inning

made it 6-3.

Detroit caught up with three in the sixth on a RBI double by

Chris Shelton, a sacrifice fly by Curtis Granderson and an error by

Berroa at short on Placido Polanco's grounder that allowed Shelton

to score the tying run.

"Not much I can say," Kansas City manager Buddy Bell said.

"Baseball, man. It's just hard to explain sometimes."Game notes
The start of the game was delayed 37 minutes by rain. ...

Detroit LHP Mike Maroth went through an 8-minute bullpen session in

which he threw fastballs and changeups. He is on the 60-day DL

after undergoing surgery on his left elbow. ... Kansas City INF

Mark Grudzielanek and 1B Doug Mientkiewicz both remained unable to

play and day-to-day with back injuries.