Miguel Cabrera smacked his 44th home run and Jhonny Peralta hit another solo homer to power Detroit over Kansas City 6-3 and clinch a Major League Baseball playoff spot for the Tigers.
The visiting Tigers improved to 87-73 to clinch the American League Central division crown and join the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles in the playoffs with one berth yet to be decided.
The Oakland A’s need only one more triumph to complete the lineup as they open a season-ending three game homestand later against two-time defending American League champion Texas, the 2010 and 2011 World Series final losers.
Peralta hit his homer in the fifth and Cabrera, chasing a rare statistical “Triple Crown” of league titles in homers and batting average plus runs batted in, took the home runs lead with his 44th of the season in the sixth inning.
Detroit’s Prince Fielder scored on an error later in the sixth inning and a bases-loaded double by Gerald Laird drove in three runs for a 6-0 Tigers’ lead.
The host Royals answered on a solo homer by Alex Gordon, a run-scoring double play and a single by Jeff Francoeur in the eighth that pulled Kansas City within the final margin.
The Yankees, 93-67, took a one-game lead over Baltimore in the fight for the AL East division lead with a 10-2 home victory over Boston while the Orioles fell to 92-68 by losing 5-3 at Tampa Bay.
Tigers clinch baseball playoff spot
