mind of those who now know the best route

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Detroit Tigers answered Kansas Citys late rally with another big swing by Justin Upton.Upton hit a two-run homer with two out in the eighth inning, sending the Tigers to a 6-5 victory over the Royals on Sunday.We had some great at-bats earlier in the game that we didnt come through on, Upton said. We came through right there. Its definitely a September feel. Theyre in the hunt, were in the hunt. Both teams are battling, the crowd is into it. Its fun. It makes it a lot more fun.Upton also doubled in J.D. Martinez in the second. He has seven homers and 18 RBI in his past 14 games.Miguel Cabrera was on first after a leadoff single when Upton drove a fastball from Joakim Soria (4-7) over the wall in center for his 20th homer, giving Detroit a 6-5 lead. The seven losses are a career high for Soria.That was a really good pitch, Soria said. Sometimes you have to tip your cap to the hitter.Shane Greene (3-3) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win. Francisco Rodriguez worked the ninth for his 38th save in 42 opportunities.The Royals batted around in a four-run seventh, highlighted by Jarrod Dysons two-run triple with two out. Paulo Orlando doubled home Dyson, but the lead was short-lived.Its a teeter-totter back and forth with this team, said Andrew Romine, who had two hits for Detroit, including an RBI double in the seventh. From what Ive seen the last couple of years since Ive been here, its the same thing every game. So, we know that nobodys out of the game. Were not out of it, no matter how many runs. Theyre not out of it, no matter how many runs, so weve just got to stay mentally locked in.Alcides Escobar opened the Kansas City ninth with a double and advanced on Dysons groundout. Before Dyson bounced to second, he drove a ball just outside the right-field foul pole. The Royals asked for a review.That ball couldnt have been foul by six inches, Royals manager Ned Yost said. I dont think it was much more. It was so close we couldnt tell on the replay. We could not get an angle on it. We just thought let New York look at it and see what they think. Again its a matter of inches and inches didnt work out in our favor today.Escobar was stranded at third when Alex Gordon bounced to second and Orlando grounded out to third.Martinez also homered for the Tigers. He is hitting .397 with eight home runs and 17 RBI since coming off the disabled list on Aug. 3.Tigers left-hander Daniel Norris was charged with three runs and four hits in six-plus innings. He struck out seven and walked one.Escobar homered in the third, tying it at 1 and hiking his hitting streak to 12 games.Royals starter Edinson Volquez gave up four runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.BOYDS RETURNINGTigers left-hander Matt Boyd will be recalled Tuesday to start at the White Sox. Boyd went 5-2 with a 4.23 ERA in 16 games, including 14 starts, for Detroit before being optioned to Triple-A Toledo, where he was 2-5 with a 2.25 ERA in 11 starts.TRAINERS ROOMTigers: OF Cameron Maybin has been out since Monday with a bruised left thumb. ... RHP Mike Pelfrey (lower back strain) gave up nine hits in 3 1/3 innings in a rehab start Saturday for Triple-A Toledo at Columbus. I guess four of them were infield hits; they didnt get to the dirt, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. His velocity was good. He looked healthy. Weve got to figure out if we want to try to find another rehab start for him or whether to activate him.Royals: Gordon, who left in the ninth inning Saturday with a sore right ankle, was not in the starting lineup Sunday, but was intentionally walked as a pinch hitter in the seventh and then stayed in the game. It was more precautionary, more than anything else, Yost said. He was fighting me to play. ... LF Lorenzo Cain has not played since Tuesday because of left wrist inflammation.UP NEXTTigers: RHP Justin Verlander, who was selected the AL pitcher of the month for August after going 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA, and White Sox LHP Chris Sale are scheduled to start on Monday at U.S. Cellular Field.Royals: RHP Ian Kennedy, who went 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA in August, will start Monday at Minnesota in the opener of a six-game trip. The Twins are recalling RHP Jose Berrios from Triple-A Rochester to start.Air Force 1 Replica .ca NBA Power Rankings, ahead of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs. Air Force 1 High Outlet . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. https://www.cheapairforce1outlet.com/ . The team said Saturday that Lopez was hurt during its 121-120 overtime loss at Philadelphia on Friday. The Nets said they would issue another update next week after consultation with their doctors. Air Force 1 Black Outlet . -- Jimmie Johnson held off a teammate, passed a pair of Hall of Famers, and dominated once more at Dover. Air Force 1 China . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead.CONCORD, N.C. -- There was a time when cable channel TNT carried NASCAR Cup Series racing. There was also a time when TNTs slogan was We know drama.Sunday afternoons 500-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the first race of the second round of the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup, would have fit perfectly into an old TNT time slot. It already felt like a throwback event, starting at high noon on a Sunday and forced out of its sexier Saturday night prime-time starting time by Hurricane Matthew.But as anyone in the Carolinas will tell you, the most perfect weather youll ever experience comes the day after a hurricane has passed through.Even under perfectly clear, cool skies, a dang near-perfect Chase storm blew in.This is just how its going to be, isnt it? Carl Edwards wondered aloud, standing on pit road after finishing 12th.On most Chase days, that finish would have been cause for panic. But a rash of attrition that infected a majority of the championship contenders meant that Edwards was sitting squarely in the middle of the postseason pack, finishing sixth among the dozen remaining Cup hopefuls.I think well see guys making mistakes behind the wheel because they are pressing so hard. I think well see pit crews making mistakes because of the same. And I think well see equipment breaking down because teams are pushing the limits.On Sunday we saw all of the above.Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, winners of three races apiece, both had engine issues. Wunderkinds Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon both crashed. Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr., two of the years consistently biggest threats to win races, were plagued by tire and clutch issues, respectively.In all, five of the Chase contenders finished 30th or worse. There were 40 cars in the race. On the digital results screens that are shown in NASCAR media centers, the Chase contenders are highlighted in red. Typically, at the end of Chase events most of those red marks are crowded up at the top left of that screen. That makes sense. After all, they are the best teams.At the end of Sundays race, it was quite the bizarre look to see those marks piled up in the lower right-hand corner of the monitor.Its weird how each round of this thing kind of takes on its own personality, said Hamlin, who finished 30th. The first [three-race] round so many of us moved on into this round because we were consistent. Now there are so many of us who left early today, winning becomes even more important than it already was.ddddddddddddSome guys will be hanging it out there at Kansas.Thats the next race in this round of what NASCAR carefully calls a grid and a not a bracket. But its a bracket. And like any other postseason, ever step along that bracket becomes smaller than the one before it, like a funnel. And like a funnel, the pressure builds up the closer you get to the exit.The stress level at Kansas, a 1.5-mile intermediate speedway in the same family tree as Charlotte, will feel like an elimination race, even though it isnt. Why? Because of the place that does host the elimination race.I think we would all love to tell you that we arent thinking about Talladega, but we definitely know its out there, admitted Cole Pearn, crew chief for Truex, who won two of the three races in the previous Chase round but finished 13th on Sunday, seventh among the Chasers.Only eight will move on from the restrictor-plate bingo hopper that is Talladega two weekends from now.I dont think you are ever totally in control of your race car or what might happen, Pearn added. Our season has sure proved that. Weve won four races, but we could have won 10. But at Talladega you have way less control of what might happen than anywhere else.Sure, they all say they arent thinking about Talladega, but not worrying about results on the sports biggest track was among the first points raised by Jimmie Johnson, who guaranteed himself a ticket into the final eight with his Charlotte win.And it was also on the mind of those who now know the best route to join him is to win Kansas.That our only goal at this point, said Rodney Childers, crew chief for Harvick, who has finishes of 20th or worse in three of the four Chase races but is still alive thanks to his win at New Hampshire two weeks ago. Then again, our goal is to win to every week.I cant even imagine what the last lap of Talladega is going to be like, Edwards added. I cant imagine what the last lap at Kansas is going to be like. Thats just what this is. Every lap matters more than the next one did. But you have to be there for that lap, dont you? A lot of guys today werent. That could be us next week. Its hard to describe.Stress, pressure, fun ... I dont know what the right word is.Sure you do, Cuz.Drama. ' ' '