Will Rhymes, Alex Avila lead Detroit Tigers past Kansas City Royals 7-5

Rhymes, Avila lead Tigers past Royals 7-5

DETROIT — Will Rhymes hit his first major league homer and Alex Avila drove in three runs and made a spectacular defensive play to lead the Detroit Tigers past the Kansas City Royals 7-5 Monday night.

Detroit trailed 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, then took the lead on Rhymes’ homer off Zack Greinke. The play originally was ruled an RBI triple, but video replays showed the ball hit the bottom of a safety railing above the right-field fence. Umpires reviewed the play and reversed the call.

Avila finished the scoring with a solo homer in the eighth, an inning after the catcher flipped over a railing and landed headfirst in the Royals’ dugout while catching Brayan Pena’s foul pop. He almost duplicated the catch with two outs in the ninth, but couldn’t hang on.