DETROIT (AP) —ne of the best line-drive hitters of the last 15 years Michael Brantley Jersey , but his career ended in a different way.Batting in the first inning of his final major league game, Martinez beat out an infield chopper and was immediately removed for a pinch runner.“I think that’s the perfect way to get my last hit,” the longtime Tigers designated hitter said. “I had to work for it, and I had to grind it out. That’s what my career has been about.”Martinez, one of baseball’s slowest runners, said he even considered bunting against the Royals‘ shift.“A single is a single, right? It doesn’t matter how you get it,” he said. “It helps the team win.”The Tigers made sure Martinez went out a winner. Mikie Mahtook’s two-run homer in the eighth inning broke a 3-3 tie and the Tigers held on for a 5-4 victory.“You could tell these guys were fired up tonight,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “They have so much respect for Victor, and they wanted to get him a win.”Niko Goodrum led off the eighth with his third hit of the game, a single off Jason Hammel (3-14). Mahtook then lined Hammel’s 1-0 slider over the left-field fence for his ninth homer.“Hammel was our most rested arm, and I liked the matchup,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s just been hanging his slider and guys aren’t missing it.”Martinez is done as a player, but Gardenhire stressed he isn’t letting the 16-year veteran head to his cattle ranch quite yet.“I’m not done with him,” he said. “I told him he’s going to be sitting with me in the dugout, helping me manage these last seven games.”The Royals joined the celebration after Martinez’s first-inning single. As he left the field to a standing ovation, fellow Venezuelans Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar came out of the dugout to embrace the five-time All-Star.“I wanted to say goodbye http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey ,” Perez said. “He’s taught me a lot of good things, both inside and outside of baseball — how to care for my family and all that. He makes me want to work harder and play until I’m 39.”Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann allowed two runs on three hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out five.“It was tough warming up, because I was watching Victor’s ceremony on the scoreboard,” Zimmermann said. “I really wanted to go out there and pitch a good game, and I was able to do that, but today is all about him.”Joe Jimenez (5-4) allowed the Royals to tie it in the eighth but earned the win.Shane Greene allowed a solo homer to Perez before finishing the ninth for his 31st save in 37 opportunities.Jake Junis entered the game with a 4-0 record and 1.76 ERA against the Tigers this season. He gave up three runs on eight hits, a walk and three wild pitches in six innings.“They got some infield hits in the first couple innings, and it really cost me some pitches,” he said. “I thought it ended up being an accomplishment just to get through six innings.”Whit Merrifield drove the game’s first pitch to right-center. JaCoby Jones made a diving try but the ball popped out of his glove when he hit the ground, giving Merrifield a triple. Adalberto Mondesi followed with a sacrifice fly.The Tigers tied the game in the bottom of the inning on Goodrum’s RBI single, and he added an RBI double in the third.Alex Gordon tied it at 2-2 with a fourth-inning homer. Two wild pitches by Junis allowed Jones to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning.Brett Phillips singled off Jimenez with one out in the eighth and scored the tying run on Merrifield’s double down the left-field line.TRAINER’S ROOMTigers: Infielders Jeimer Candelario (back) and Goodrum (quadriceps) returned to the lineup. Candelario played third, while Goodrum started at second before moving to first after Martinez’s departure.KOZMA RARITYPete Kozma tripled in the eighth inning — his first three-base hit in the majors since Sept. 21, 2012. Kozma’s first triple as a Tiger put him one ahead of Martinez, who finished his Detroit career with zero triples in 969 games.THANKS, VICTORMartinez was honored in a pregame ceremony that included a video tribute and gifts for his family presented by the team’s other Latin American players, including Miguel Cabrera, who had been away from the team while rehabbing his biceps injury.There were also presents from Martinez’s teammates and the Tigers organization. In honor of his future as a full-time cattle rancher Kenny Lofton Jersey , the gifts included handmade cowboy boots and a saddle emblazoned with the Tigers logo.After taking time to compose himself, Martinez thanked the fans in a brief speech. He played first base for the first time since June 1, 2016, ending a 342-game streak of only serving as a hitter.Martinez also spoke to the fans in a postgame interview, waiting for “V-Mart” chants to die down.“There were times that they booed me, but that was because I sucked,” he said. “I hated myself when I sucked, too. The fans here pushed me to be a better player and a better person, and I can’t thank them enough for that.”UP NEXTThe teams finish their four-game series Sunday afternoon in Detroit’s final home game of the season. Brad Keller (8-6, 3.17 ERA) will start for the Royals against Daniel Norris (0-5, 5.71). WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It might seem as if Juan Soto has a big hole to fill in the Washington Nationals‘ lineup, what with Bryce Harper gone.Soto is not the sort to worry about that type of thing, though. Last season’s surprise runner-up as NL Rookie of the Year at age 19, he’s carefree and self-believing as can be, by all accounts.Which is good, because he could very well be the No. 3 hitter for Washington http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey , counted on to make the offense go. Everyone around Soto seems to think he’ll be up for whatever challenges Year 2 brings.“He’s as ready as you could possibly be at, shoot, 20 years old,” Nationals closer Sean Doolittle said Thursday, before Soto homered for the second consecutive exhibition game. “He has a very mature approach — the way he prepares. He loves doing all the work behind the scenes. He’s always in the cage or in the weight room. Keeps his head down. He’s a quiet guy, by nature, and he doesn’t seek out the spotlight.”Young as he is, Soto sounds like an old soul, speaking about the “process” of spring training during his first taste of big league camp — he started last season, believe it or not, at low-A ball — and getting ready for the regular season “step by step, every day.”Asked whether he can improve on what he showed last year, Soto crossed his arms and replied: “My approach with that is: just the same.”The Nationals certainly would take more of the same.Soto made his debut last May after all of eight games at Double-A and he hit .292 with 22 homers, 25 doubles and 70 RBIs in only 116 games. He walked a whopping 79 times, helping produce a .406 on-base percentage. His slugging percentage was .517. His three multihomer games were the most by a teenager in big league history.“I don’t see any difference from where he was last year to where he is this year. If I had to say anything, maybe a little bit more confident, that he knows he belongs here http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey ,” manager Dave Martinez said. “And that’s a good feeling.”No one is too worried about Soto’s hitting. The two key areas that need shoring up: defense and baserunning.Martinez knows it. So does Soto, who learned left field on the fly in Washington a year ago, having played only seven games there in the minors, where he usually was in right or center.Every morning in Florida, Soto said, he puts in extra work with his glove.“It was almost borderline unfair that we put him out in left field, but it was by necessity,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “What he has shown us, in so many different ways, is the mental maturity and the outstanding makeup of a superstar player. And he is not satisfied.”The quality that stands out to everyone is Soto’s discipline at the plate, something he began honing at the prompting of a hitting coach in the minors.“He doesn’t swing unless it’s a strike. That’s pretty impressive. Pretty hard to do at the highest level when you’re a teenager,” Nationals shortstop Trea Turner said.Turner thinks that skill will help Soto “counteract” whatever adjustments opposing pitchers make when facing him this season.“We saw last year that his approach at the plate is really, really advanced. You don’t see him over-swing and get outside of his mechanics and try to do too much,” Doolittle said. “You see him use the whole field. You see him really dial it in with two strikes. It lends itself to giving himself a good chance to follow up and pick up where he left off. I’m excited to see what he does next.”