DETROIT -- Eric Hosmer has won Gold Gloves and a championship in his seven-year career. The Kansas City Royals first baseman added a long-awaited grand slam to his resume on Wednesday.

Hosmer's first career grand slam highlighted a nine-run seventh inning and the Royals extended their season-best winning streak to eight games by pounding the Detroit Tigers 16-2 at Comerica Park.

"I thought about it after I realized it was my first one," Hosmer said. "It's baseball. It's crazy. I think the last time I hit a grand slam might have been high school or the minor leagues. But I'm glad to get one out of the way now."

Hosmer matched his career high with five hits while scoring five runs and driving in six as the Royals racked up a season-high 22 hits. The 16 runs and nine-run inning tied season highs for the Royals (53-47).

"The first three at-bats I didn't really square any balls up but I got a couple hits out of it," Hosmer said. "Later on throughout the game, I felt a little better and better. Just offensively as a team we're in a good spot right now."

Both benches cleared after Tigers reliever Bruce Rondon hit Mike Moustakas with a pitch in the ninth inning. Rondon, who did not speak to the media afterward, was ejected for the first time in his career.

Alex Gordon also got plunked earlier in the game but Kansas City showed some restraint by not throwing any punches or having anyone ejected. Reliever Brandon Maurer, acquired from San Diego on Monday, also didn't retaliate in the bottom of the inning in his team debut.

"It's one of those situations where you just don't try to compound something that's not very smart," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "You just go ahead and get through the inning right there. With the warnings being issued it's an automatic suspension probably for the pitcher and he's automatically ejected and we just don't want to take a chance of losing Maurer right there."

Whit Merrifield and Moustakas each supplied three hits and drove in a run for Kansas City. Lorenzo Cain also rapped three hits and scored three runs, Alcides Escobar contributed two hits and drove in two runs, and Drew Butera added a two-run single during the seventh-inning outburst.

Ian Kennedy (4-6) held the Tigers (45-55) to one run on three hits over six innings.

Mikie Mahtook stretched his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games with a fifth-inning single and scored a run for Detroit. That didn't make him feel any better.

"You want to say we can shrug it off and you're going to have some games like that, because you are," he said. "There are just some things that happened today that aren't good. We don't want to see that happen. That's now how we play. That's not how we go about things. Now, we have to move past it."

Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez (2-1) was removed with two out in the fourth inning. He allowed four runs on nine hits, all singles, and issued two walks.

It only got uglier for Detroit after he departed. Position player Andrew Romine finished the game on the mound after Rondon was tossed.

"It's embarrassing. There's no degrees of embarrassing," left fielder Justin Upton said. "It happens to everybody. I'm sure Romine's not the first position player to pitch this year."

Escobar's RBI single in the second opened the scoring for Kansas City.

The Royals upped their lead to 4-0 in the third with a small-ball attack. They slapped five singles, with Merrifield sparking the uprising with a leadoff infield hit. Jorge Bonifacio, Hosmer and Brandon Moss delivered the runs.

Detroit broke through in the fifth on Jose Iglesias' two-out, RBI double.

Kansas City send 12 men to the plate in the seventh and also batted around in the ninth.

NOTES: Royals C Salvador Perez got the night off but he'll be available for the weekend series in Boston. He left Tuesday's game during the fifth inning with right side rib tightness. ... Detroit LHP Daniel Norris received a cortisone shot after undergoing a second MRI to determine the extent of his right quad and left groin injuries. He will begin a light throwing program in a few days and there's no timetable for his return. ... Both teams have Thursday off. The Royals will travel to Boston for a weekend series, while the Tigers remain home to face American League West Division leader Houston. ... Tigers manager Brad Ausmus isn't sweating out the trade deadline despite rumors swirling around his team. "I don't lie awake at night waiting for four o'clock on July 31st to pass," he said.