Kansas City, Mo. ? Miguel Cabrera provided the power and Justin Verlander the pitching. Still, the Detroit Tigers needed a lucky break to survive a ninth-inning scare from the Kansas City Royals.

Cabrera hit two homers and Verlander pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Tigers held on for a 4-3 victory Friday night.

The game ended when David DeJesus, who was on third, was thrown out trying to score on a pitch Fernando Rodney threw to the backstop. Ross Gload, who had four hits to match his career high, was batting for the Royals. The ball took a true bounce back to catcher Brandon Inge, who made a perfect throw to Rodney covering home.

“It hit between two signs, but there is a seam, where they have the pads that run down vertically, it hit right in the middle of that,” Inge said. “You’re talking about an inch or two and it could have hit the seam and kicked to the right or the left. It didn’t come back too far anyway. I was in the gravel. That was very fortunate. That’s what that was.”