Lima continues to give Royals an unexpected lift

DETROIT (AP) -- After beating the Detroit Tigers, Jose Lima wanted to look ahead instead of harping on old grudges.

Lima won his seventh straight start, and Angel Berroa and Desi Relaford homered as the Kansas City Royals beat Detroit 5-1 Sunday.

Released by the Tigers last season, Lima claimed Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski sent a letter to other major league teams advising them not to sign the right-hander. Dombrowski has denied that.

"No more talk about Detroit and no more talk about Dombrowski," Lima said. "It's done."

He was told that Sunday was Dombrowski's birthday.

"Happy birthday to him," Lima said. "I wish him health for many, many, many years."

Lima (7-0) continued his remarkable major league comeback, giving up four hits in five shutout innings.

A 21-game winner and NL All-Star with Houston in 1999, he began this season with the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League -- the same team Rickey Henderson was playing for before signing with the Dodgers.

Lima, 30, signed a minor league contract with Kansas City on June 11 and was called up four days later. He got a no-decision against San Francisco and has won seven starts in a row since.

"I was out of baseball pretty much," Lima said. "But now I'm having fun again."

With a stellar 2.17 ERA, Lima is a big reason the young Royals have been able to maintain their lead in the AL Central.

After missing his last scheduled start because of a groin injury, Lima struck out three and walked one to become the first Royals pitcher to win seven consecutive starts since David Cone won eight straight in 1994.

"For us, it's just like facing any other pitcher. He just did well today," Detroit's Carlos Pena said. "He had his stuff going, throwing strikes, spotting the ball very well. That's what he's been doing since he came back. He's back. He's feeling good and he beat us today."

Royals manager Tony Pena pulled Lima after five innings because he didn't want to take any chances with the groin.

"I told him he had one more inning after the fourth," Pena said.

Sean Lowe, Jason Grimsley and Mike MacDougal finished the five-hitter for Kansas City.

Tigers starter Mike Maroth (5-15) allowed five runs and seven hits in seven innings.

The Royals have capitalized on their chances all season.

"We'll have a game like today where we'd only have six or seven hits and get five runs," Relaford said. "That's been our M.O. for success. It's not how many you get, but when you get 'em."

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Carlos Beltran's sacrifice fly.

The Royals made it 3-0 on Ken Harvey's RBI double and Berroa's sacrifice fly.

Detroit threatened in the fourth when Bobby Higginson led off with a double and moved to third on Dmitri Young's single. But Lima got Kevin Witt to pop out to shortstop, Pena to pop to left and struck out Shane Halter to end the inning.

"That really hurt us," Tigers manager Alan Trammell said. "Who knows what might have happened? But to get nothing out of that is very disappointing."

Berroa homered in the sixth to give the Royals a 4-0 lead.

Witt's homer in the sixth off Lowe put the Tigers on the board, but Relaford led off the seventh with a home run to restore Kansas City's four-run lead.

Game notes
Lima pitched for Detroit from 1994-96 and 2001-02. ... Beltran has 13 RBI and is batting .412 (21-for-51) in his last 14 games. ... Higginson's fourth-inning double was the 244th of his career. That ties him with Harvey Kuenn for 10th place on the Tigers' all-time list. ... Berroa has homered in five of his last 12 games. ... Attendance was 35,326.