KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Colt Keith hit a two-run homer, Matt Vierling had three hits while driving in the go-ahead run, and the Detroit Tigers rallied from an early four-run deficit to beat the Kansas City Royals 7-6 on Monday night in a crucial game for their playoff hopes.
Pinch-hitter Wenceel Pérez had the tying two-run double for Detroit, which began its final trip of the regular season by moving within 1 1/2 games of Minnesota for the final AL wild-card spot. The Twins lost to Cleveland earlier in the night.
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Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch talks to his players on the mound as he makes a pitching change during the third inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Seth Lugo throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Reese Olson throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. hits a grand slam during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. runs the bases after hitting a grand slam during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a grand slam during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
“It was an incredible win because of how we were able to do it,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We didn't do much early, although our at-bats were pretty good. Started to chip away a little bit, a couple of really big swings, and then we held on."
Brenan Hanifee (1-1) earned the win in relief for Detroit, allowing one run and three hits over 2 1/3 innings. Jason Foley finished off a solid bullpen performance, working a perfect ninth to earn his 24th save and second in two days.
“The bullpen has been doing it all year for us,” Keith said, “and they did it again tonight.”
Bobby Witt Jr. hit a grand slam to stake Kansas City to a 4-0 lead, and he added a bunt single for a five-RBI game. But the Royals otherwise kept squandering chances to score, just as they did in their loss to the Pirates on Sunday.
Sam Long (3-2) took the loss for Kansas City, allowing three runs while retiring just two batters in relief of Seth Lugo.
“A lot of stuff happened in that game, clearly. It was an intense back-and-forth, both teams putting everything on the line,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “You get out to a lead, you feel pretty good. You know they're not going to go away.”
Indeed, the Royals started their final homestand by taking advantage of what Detroit could not: the bases loaded.
The Tigers packed them in the third before Keith grounded out to second to end the threat. But when Kansas City loaded the bases in the bottom half — a leadoff walk from Adam Frazier, a single by Yuli Gurriel and a bunt single from Kyle Isbel — Witt hit a 1-1 pitch what seemed like a mile high and over the left-field wall for his second grand slam of the season.
Reese Olson, making his first start since straining his right shoulder July 20 in Toronto, was lifted one batter later, after Salvador Perez blooped a single to right. He allowed four runs, four hits and a walk while throwing 50 pitches.
The Tigers still trailed 5-1 in the fifth when they began their comeback, scoring once on Witt's throwing error and twice more when Keith homered to right. And after Witt delivered an RBI single in the bottom half for his 200th hit of the season, Detroit pushed across three more runs in the sixth off Long and John Schreiber to take a 7-6 lead.
“We had trouble putting them away from the very beginning. There weren’t a lot of easy outs,” Quatraro said. "You have got to give them credit the way they battled their at-bats and drove (Seth) Lugo’s pitch count up. Then they continued to put good at-bats up. I thought ours were pretty good, too. We just didn’t get the big hits like they did.”
The Royals had two aboard with one out in the seventh, and the first two on base in the eighth, but failed to score both times.
“That was one of the best games we've played as a team,” Keith said. “I don't think anybody thought that we were out of it."
Tigers: RHP Ricky Vanasco was optioned to Triple-A Toledo to make space for Olson on the roster. Vanasco pitched two scoreless innings in two appearances with the club, earning his first big league win on Sept. 5 in Oakland.
Royals: RHP Chris Stratton, who went on the injured list Saturday, was diagnosed with a Grade-1 flexor strain and will be shut down for at least a week. ... RHP James McArthur left Monday's game after retiring two batters with right elbow tightness.
Detroit: RHP Casey Mize (2-6, 4.47) is on the mound against Kansas City for the second game of the series Tuesday night.
Kansas City: LHP Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.32) faces the Tigers after striking out 12 against them in an 8-3 win on May 22.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch talks to his players on the mound as he makes a pitching change during the third inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Seth Lugo throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Reese Olson throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. hits a grand slam during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. runs the bases after hitting a grand slam during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a grand slam during the third inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.
The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.
Several secondary explosions could be heard after the initial strike, but it was not immediately clear if they were caused by weapons or fuel tanks.
Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed hospital.
Hospital records showed that four people were killed and 40 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Israel is still carrying out near-daily strikes across the Gaza Strip more than a year into the war, and has been waging a major ground assault in the north, where it says militants have regrouped.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while Palestinian militants abducted around 250 hostages. Around 100 are still being held inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says women and children make up more than half the fatalities. Around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war, often multiple times, and large areas of the coastal territory have been completely destroyed.
Israel has ordered the entire remaining population of the northern third of Gaza, estimated at around 400,000 people, to evacuate to the south and has not allowed any food to enter the north since the start of the month. Hundreds of thousands of people from the north heeded Israeli evacuation orders at the start of the war and have not been allowed to return.
That has raised fears among Palestinians that Israel intends to implement a plan devised by former generals in which it would order all civilians out of northern Gaza and label anyone remaining there a combatant — a surrender-or-starve strategy that rights groups say would violate international law.
The plan has been presented to the Israeli government, but it's unclear whether it has been adopted. The military says it has not received such orders.
Israeli rights groups on Monday called on the international community to prevent Israel from carrying out the plan, saying there are “alarming signs” that Israel is beginning to implement it.
The statement, signed by B'Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, warned that states “have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forcible transfer."
With no end in sight to the war in Gaza, Israel is also waging an air and ground war in southern Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas that has been firing rockets into northern Israel for more than a year. Israel has also threatened to strike Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack, raising the prospect of an all-out regionwide war.
A Hezbollah aerial attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers — all of them 19 years old — and severely wounded seven others Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.
Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the assault by drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. It’s rare for so many people to be wounded by drones or missiles, most of which are intercepted by Israel's multitiered air defenses or fall in open areas.
Magdy reported from Cairo.
Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli soldiers mourn Sgt. Yosef Hieb, killed Sunday by a Hezbollah drone attack that wounded dozens and killed four soldiers, while at his funeral in Tuba Zangariyye, Israel, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers mourn Sgt. Yosef Hieb, killed Sunday by a Hezbollah drone attack that wounded dozens and killed four soldiers, while at his funeral in Tuba Zangariyye, Israel, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers display what they say are Hezbollah ammunition and explosives found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers display what they say is an entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers display what they say is an entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel found during their ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Palestinians try to extinguish fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire caused by an Israeli strike that hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, hit by an Israeli bombardment on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian man reacts to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
