Lakeland, Fla. — Jermaine Dye had a home run and a double, Luis Alicea drove in three runs and the Kansas City Royals scored six runs off Detroit starter Brian Moehler in a 10-4 win over the Tigers on Monday.
Dye's solo homer in the second and Alicea's RBI double in the third staked the Royals to a 2-0 lead. They added four unearned runs in the fourth an error by Tigers third baseman Shane Halter.
Kansas City closer Roberto Hernandez fires a seventh-inning pitch to Detroit batter Scott Servais. The Royals routed the Tigers, 10-4, on Monday in Lakeland, Fla.
"I don't consider this a bad outing," Moehler said. "I gave up two earned runs, I threw strikes and I got all my pitches in. I wanted to work on some things and I was able to do that. That's what spring training's for."
After a perfect first inning, Dye hit the first pitch of the second well past the left-field wall for his third homer of the spring.
"Pitchers usually want to lay a strike in there in the spring and get ahead of the hitters," Dye said. "I was going up there looking to get a pitch to handle."
Dye also doubled in the fifth off Sean Runyan to improve his spring training average to .381 (8-for-21).
"I'm just trying to go out and stay in a rhythm," he said. "I've had a good couple of games and I'm just trying to stay with the same approach."
Alicea finished 2-for-4, doubling home a run in the third and singling in two more in the fourth.
A.J. Hinch added a solo home run in the seventh off Dave Borkowski, and the Royals added three runs in the ninth off Tigers closer Todd Jones.
"Our pitching's been fairly good," Tigers manager Phil Garner said. "Our hitting's been terrible. We have too many strikeouts with men in scoring position.
"I don't care if it is spring training, we've got to have tougher at-bats. We've got to get better."
Notes: The Tigers sent seven players to minor league camp: pitchers Shane Loux, Adam Pettyjohn and Mike Maroth were optioned to Triple-A Toledo; pitcher Luis Pineda was optioned to Double-A Erie; and pitcher Nate Cornejo and outfielder Rod Lindsey were reassigned to the minor league camp. Pitcher Curtis King was given his unconditional release . . . The Royals optioned pitcher Junior Guerrero to Double-A Wichita and outfielder Alexis Gomez to Class-A Wilmington. They also reassigned infielder Nick Ortiz and catchers Michael Tonis and Scott Walter to their minor league camp.
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