DETROIT -- While Tuesday night's 13-2 loss to the Tigers was a setback in the chase for an American League Wild Card spot, the Royals inched closer to breaking the single-season franchise record for team home runs.
Lorenzo Cain's solo shot in the sixth inning gave the Royals 168 homers on the season, their most since 1987. It is the lowest such record total of any team in the Major Leagues. The Padres (177) and Pirates (171) are the only others with single-season marks below 200 homers.
Cain was unaware that his homer tied the mark, but he said it's nice to see guys putting up the runs.
"I guess it's a special time," Cain said. "I didn't know that. We've hit a lot more homers this year, got a lot more power on this team. Guys are really driving the ball this year."
• Cain mistakenly thought that Jones robbed his homer
It was Cain's 14th homer of the season, two shy of his career high. While he is approaching his own high-water mark, Cain's club-record-tying home run comes amid teammate Mike Moustakas' chase for the single-season mark for an indvidual
Moustakas is sitting on 36 homers this season, tied with Steve Balboni, who also hit 36 for the World Series championship team in 1985.
This season has obviously seen a spike in power numbers for the Royals, who amassed 147 and 139 homers in each of the last two seasons, respectively, coinciding with the rise of such players as Moustakas, Eric Hosmer (23 this season) and Salvador Perez (22).
While chasing home run records is fun for fans to indulge in, right now the Royals are more concerned about winning games to give themselves a chance at the postseason. They missed an opportunity to gain ground in the Wild Card chase on Tuesday night, as the Twins lost to the Rays, leaving the Royals 2 1/2 games out of the second Wild Card spot.
"We haven't lost hope or anything like that," outfielder Alex Gordon said on Monday. "There's a lot of teams kind of bunched in the middle of the Wild Card, so we've just got to keep plugging and not worry about what other teams are doing."