Keith hits 2-run homer as Tigers overcome Witt's grand slam and rally for 7-6 win over Royals

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.

“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)

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is staying locked up after a judge Wednesday rejected the hip-hop mogul’s proposal that he await his sex trafficking trial in the luxury of his Florida mansion instead of a grim Brooklyn federal jail.

U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter ruled that Combs' plan — which included a $50 million bail offer, GPS monitoring and strict limitations on visitors — was “insufficient” to ensure the safety of the community and the integrity of his case.

Carter, agreeing with prosecutors who fought to keep Combs in jail, found that "no condition or set of conditions” governing his release could guard against the risk of him threatening or harming witnesses — a central charge in his case.

Combs' lawyers were making their second attempt in as many days to spring him from the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he has been held since pleading not guilty Tuesday to charges he physically and sexually abused women for years.

Combs has been in federal custody since his arrest Monday night at a Manhattan hotel. A federal magistrate on Tuesday rejected Combs' initial bail request. On Wednesday, he and his lawyers struck out with Carter, the judge who will preside over his trial.

Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo says he will now ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Carter's ruling and release Combs. In the meantime, he wants Combs moved from the Brooklyn lockup, which has been plagued by rampant violence and horrific conditions, to a jail in New Jersey. Carter said decisions on placement are entirely up to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

“I’m not going to let him sit in that jail a day longer than he has to," Agnifilo said to reporters outside the courtroom.

Combs looked at family members and tapped his heart several times as Wednesday’s hearing began, then sat stoically as he listened to arguments. Afterward, as federal agents led him away, his relatives somberly embraced and exchanged hand slaps.

Combs, 54, is accused in an indictment of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, participated in and often recorded on video. The events would sometimes last days and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover, the indictment said.

The indictment alleges Combs coerced and abused women for years, with the help of a network of associates and employees, while using blackmail and violent acts including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings to keep victims from speaking out.

Arguing to keep Combs in jail, prosecutor Emily Johnson told Carter that the once-celebrated rapper has a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse. She cited text messages from women who said Combs forced them into “Freak Offs” and then threatened to leak videos of them engaging in sex acts.

Johnson said Combs' defense team was “minimizing and horrifically understating" Combs' propensity for violence, taking issue with his lawyer's portrayal of a 2016 assault at a Los Angeles hotel as a lovers’ quarrel. Security video of the event, which only came to light in May, showed Combs hitting and kicking his then-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel hallway.

“What’s love got to do with that?” an incredulous Carter asked.

Johnson also seized on a text message from a woman who said Combs dragged her down a hallway by her hair. According to Johnson, the woman told the rapper: “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child.”

“There is a longstanding pattern of abuse here,” Johnson said.

Combs’ Florida house is on Star Island, a man-made dollop of land in Biscayne Bay near Miami Beach, reachable only by a causeway or boat. It is among the most expensive places to live in the United States. Combs’ request echoed that of a long line of wealthy defendants who have offered to post multimillion-dollar bails in exchange for home detention in luxurious surroundings.

If he had been granted bail, Combs would have been confined to his home, with visits restricted to family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators, his lawyers said. After prosecutors said they served a search warrant Tuesday on Combs' private security chief, his lawyers offered to hire a new firm to monitor him and ensure he abided by the proposed agreement.

Carter was unmoved, questioning the plan as an “allegedly fool-proof system."

Many allegations in Combs’ indictment parallel accusations in a November lawsuit filed by Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. Combs settled the suit the next day, but its allegations have followed him since.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.

Without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, Agnifilo argued that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. The “Freak Offs,” he contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

“The sex and the violence were totally separate and motivated by totally different things," Agnifilo said, contending that Combs and Cassie brought sex workers into their relationship because "that was the way these two adults chose to be intimate.”

Prosecutors portrayed the scope as larger. They said they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses.

Like many aging hip-hop figures, Bad Boy Records founder Combs had established a gentler public image. The father of seven was a respected businessman whose annual Hamptons “White Party” was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.

But prosecutors said he facilitated his crimes using the same companies, people and methods that vaulted him to power. They said they would prove the charges with financial and travel records, electronic communications and videos of the “Freak Offs."

In March, authorities raided Combs' Los Angeles and Florida homes, seizing drugs, videos and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, prosecutors said. They said agents also seized guns and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.

A conviction on every charge would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

This story has been edited to correct the spelling of Cassie’s legal first name: Casandra, not Cassandra.

Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

From right, Justin Dior Combs, Quincy Brown and King Combs, arrive at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks about federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs appears at the premiere of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story" on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

From left, King Combs, Quincy Brown and Justin Dior Combs arrive at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, center, is flanked by his defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, left, and Teny Garagos, in Manhattan Federal Court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks about federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

FILE -Sean 'Diddy' Combs participates in "The Four" panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 4, 2018. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, seated right, looks at his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, left, as he delivers his bail argument as Combs' family in the gallery, background, raise their hands indicating to Judge Tarnofsky that they are in attendance, to bolster the defense attorney's bail argument, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Manhattan Federal Court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)