KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There's always that moment in a baseball game, that pivotal moment where the outcome hangs in the balance. It can come early, late or somewhere in the middle innings.
That moment for the Tigers on Monday came in the eighth inning. They trailed 2-0 and had not scored a run in 20 innings. Not since Kerry Carpenter's three-run homer in the fifth inning Saturday in Seattle. They were shut out 2-0 Sunday in Seattle and seemed on the verge of enduring the same fate against the Central Division cellar-dwelling Royals.
Fitting, then, that it was Carpenter, who snapped the scoreless drought with a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning. Matt Vierling, who was 0-for-13 since the All-Star break, followed with a two-run double to right field and the Tigers beat the Royals 3-2 in the first game of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
