A little sloppy all around.

Royals 6, Tigers 5

Justin Verlander (10-7, 131.2 IP, 3.62 ERA, 3.36 FIP, 3.0 WAR) didn’t have his best night, allowing 6 runs (5 earned) across 5.2 innings of work that included 8 hits and 4 walks to go with just 3 strikeouts. He did a nice job avoiding catastrophic damage and gave the Tigers a shot to claw back. He left the game with his team trailing 6-5 courtesy of 2 in the 1st, 1 in the 2nd, and 2 in the 5th thanks to solid production from the middle of the order and a big night for Avila. The Tigers had a great scoring chance in the 8th when the first two men reached, but Leyland gave away an out by having Jackson bunt and then Hunter and Cabrera grounded out before the Tigers could score and the Tigers were unable to knock in Hernan Perez in the 9th who pinch ran after a Martinez double. The Tigers will look to salvage one in the series on Sunday with Doug Fister (7-5, 121 IP, 4.02 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 2.6 WAR) set to take the hill

The Moment: Dirks beats out ground ball on a botched defensive play by Hosmer and Guthrie to set up two runs.