Royals clip Tigers, complete sweep

Kansas City, MO – Jeremy Guthrie worked 7 1/3 outstanding innings on Thursday and the Kansas City Royals completed a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 2-1 victory at Kauffman Stadium.

Guthrie (3-3) allowed one run and scattered 10 hits with three strikeouts and no walks to snap a string of two straight no-decisions. He has not lost since Aug. 3.

Tim Collins and Aaron Crow finished off the eighth and Kelvin Herrera earned his first save with a scoreless ninth.

"They're both dangerous, so you've got to make quality pitches," Guthrie said of his approach to Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. "On Fielder, the big key was trying to keep him in the yard because he took some good swings on some pitches all night long. If you didn't let them both get a hit back- to-back, you've got a better shot at it. I think that was the big key tonight."

Alex Gordon crushed a solo home run and Johnny Giavotella added an RBI on a groundout for the Royals, who completed their first sweep of the division- rival Tigers since taking three straight from Sept. 8-10, 2009.

Rick Porcello (9-10) was saddled with the loss after allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts over five-plus innings. Jhonny Peralta knocked in the only run for the Tigers, who have lost four of their last six games.

The Royals broke a scoreless deadlock with a run in the fifth inning. Mike Moustakas started the inning with a double, Jeff Francoeur singled and Eric Hosmer walked to load the bases with no outs. Giavotella grounded into a fielder's choice which allowed Moustakas to score.

Gordon extended the Royals' lead to 2-0 after he led off the sixth with a towering shot to right-center field that just had enough juice to get over the wall.

Fielder smacked a one-out single off Guthrie in the eighth and Delmon Young followed with a base hit to put runners on the corners. Collins came out of the bullpen and allowed an RBI base hit to Peralta, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Herrera walked pinch-hitter Alex Avila on four pitches to begin the ninth and Andy Dirks singled two batters later. But Herrera got Cabrera to ground into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

"On a three-game road trip, we want to put up a better showing than what we did," Porcello said. "But we've got to turn the page. We've got Chicago coming to town, a big series with them and Cleveland. We've got to get over what happened these past three games."

Game Notes

Gordon extended his hitting streak to eight games ... Hosmer has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games ... Francoeur snapped an 0-for-19 slump ... The Tigers were swept for the first time since losing three in a row to the Cleveland Indians from May 22-24 ... Detroit fell to 17-19 in one-run games and 20-49 when scoring four-or-less runs ... The Tigers finished 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 on base.