In a beautiful Comerica Park, the Detroit Tigers lost 5-1 to the Kansas City Royals. However, Detroit has 11 more games against Kansas City, which could help them make a ton of ground in the American League Central. The Tigers are now 51-55 and the Royals are 63-42.

Justin Verlander was coming off a great start for the Tigers in his last outing, but on Tuesday, it was much different. 

Against the Royals, Verlander went seven innings, but gave up five earned runs on 10 hits. The right-hander struggled to bring the heat, striking out just five. He took the loss and is now 1-4 with a 5.05 ERA on the season. 

Verlander was hit hard throughout the entire game, giving up runs in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Three runs being driven in by Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez, who punched in three hits and three RBI. 

In the fifth, newly acquired Ben Zobrist hit a sacrifice fly to score a run, and Alex Rios added another run in the sixth inning on an RBI double. 

After Verlander was taken out, the bullpen went to work. Blaine Hardy and Al Alburquerque combined for two shutout innings, giving up just two hits. 

Danny Duffy, the Royals starting pitcher, bounced back after an awful start against the Toronto Blue Jays on July 30th. During that outing, Duffy gave up five earned runs on six hits over six innings. Against Detroit, the left-hander went seven innings and gave up just one run on five hits and four walks. Duffy is now 5-5 with a 4.04 ERA. 

The only run yielded by the Royals was an RBI single to Victor Martinez in the sixth inning. 

The bullpen consisted of Ryan Madson and Luke Hochevar for the Royals on Tuesday. As usual, the duo locked down Detroit and combined for two perfect innings. Madson, 2.23 ERA, and Hochevar, 3.86 ERA, did not give up a walk, hit or run. The two also did not rack up a strikeout. 

On Wednesday, the Tigers and Royals will be back at it for the second game of the three-game series. It will be Johnny Cueto (7-6) toeing the slab for the Royals. Cueto will be opposed by Buck Farmer (0-2) of the Tigers. 

Side note, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch fired general manager Dave Dombrowski and promoted Detroit's catcher Alex Avila's father as the new GM. Al Avila was Dombrowski's main assistant. Dombroski took the Tigers to six postseason appearances after making a terrible franchise great again. He took the team to a World Series in 2006 and 2012, but both ended in losses.