KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Danny Duffy carried a perfect game into the seventh inning, Billy Butler drove in the only run and the Kansas City Royals held on to beat the Baltimore Orioles 1-0 Saturday night.

The 25-year-old Duffy (2-3) retired the first 20 batters he faced, rarely running the count to three balls and flirting with the first perfect game in franchise history. Adam Jones finally ended it with a weak ground ball up the middle with two outs in the seventh.

Duffy bounced back to get Chris Davis on a fly out to end the inning, then gave up a single to Nelson Cruz to start the eighth. Wade Davis retired the next three batters, and All-Star closer Greg Holland survived a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for his 11th save.

Holland allowed a hit and two walks before striking out Cruz to end the game.

Bud Norris (2-4) was the hard-luck loser, allowing four hits and a walk in 7⅓ innings.

The lone run he allowed came in the first, when Norichika Aoki led off with a single, stole second and then scored on Butler’s single to center. The hit ended an 0-for-10 slump, and gave Kansas City only its second run in the first three games of the four-game set.

Duffy missed most of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, and he began this season in the bullpen after losing the competition for a rotation spot in spring training. But he was forced back into the rotation a few weeks ago, when Bruce Chen landed on the disabled list with a back injury, and has pitched so well that he may have claimed the spot for good.

After struggling with control most of his first three seasons, Duffy has finally started to harness his stuff. He allowed one run on two hits in four innings in his first start May 3 against Detroit, and one run on two hits in six innings last week in Seattle.

He wound up losing both games when the Royals failed to score a run for him.

Perhaps with that in mind, Duffy kept the Orioles off the scoreboard entirely. He never got close to allowing a hit until Caleb Joseph hit a liner at third baseman Mike Moustakas to end the sixth inning, and Alex Gordon made a spectacular diving catch on Nick Markakis’s fly ball to lead off the seventh. Duffy then struck out Manny Machado before Jones delivered his single.

The crowd gave Duffy a standing ovation after the hit, and then another when he exited the game. Duffy sheepishly waved his cap in appreciation as he entered the dugout.

After dealing with a stiff neck, Davis returned to breeze through the rest of the eighth.

Holland put runners on the corners with one out in the ninth, and then struck out Jones moments after manager Ned Yost was tossed by plate umpire Chris Segal for arguing what he thought was strike three. Holland walked Davis to load the bases before striking out Cruz to end it.

The Royals have had four no-hitters in franchise history, the last by Brett Saberhagen against the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 26, 1991. The Orioles have not been no-hit since Sept. 1, 2007, when Clay Buchholz accomplished the feat for the Boston Red Sox.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chris Tillman paid no attention to the Baltimore bullpen as it started to stir in the ninth inning. After all, he had made it this far before. There was no way he was leaving the game now.

So after a leadoff single to start the inning, Tillman bore down against the Kansas City Royals. The young right-hander induced three straight groundouts to end the game, wrapping up a 4-0 victory for the Orioles and giving Tillman his first career shutout.

“I’ll take more of them,” he said, “but that’s not my goal.”

Maybe not. But it sure is nice.

Tillman came within two outs of a nine-inning complete game earlier this season, and he was incensed when he was pulled from an eventual 3-1 win over Detroit. He hadn’t been any happier of late, either, after scuffling through his last five outings.

But behind a dastardly combination of curveballs, changeups and fastballs, Tillman (4-2) kept the offensively inept Royals off balance. He scattered five hits and a walk, his dominant outing coming one night after Wei-Yin Chen and four relievers combined to beat Kansas City 2-1.

Chris Davis homered and Steve Clevenger also drove in a run for the Orioles.

“This is Tillman’s night,” the Royals’ Billy Butler said. “You’ve got to give him credit. He did his job today. He was locating, throwing all of his pitches. He did a heck of a job.”

Jeremy Guthrie (2-3) bounced back from a lousy start to last eight innings against his former team. The Royals’ starter allowed four runs, eight hits and a walk while striking out two.

While falling to 0-3 with four no-decisions in his last seven starts, Guthrie at least was able to save a bullpen that had been chewed up in that close loss the previous night.

“He threw the ball well. He really did,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

As for that offense, which has managed one run in the last two games?

“Offenses heat up, cool off,” Yost said. “Right now we don’t have anybody where I can sit back and say this boy is really swinging the bat well right now.”

The game was played in a brisk 2 hours, 22 minutes, mostly because the starters were so effective. Tillman retired 13 of 14 batters after giving up a double to Norichika Aoki to start the game, and Guthrie only allowed a single by J.J. Hardy over the first three innings.

Baltimore finally got to Guthrie in the fourth, and it was partly his own doing.

Manny Machado led off by bunting back toward Guthrie, and he slipped while trying to field the ball. His hurried throw to first was wide of the bag for an error, and Machado trotted over to second base. Moments later, he headed for third when Guthrie threw a wild pitch.

Davis walked to put runners on the corners for Cruz, whose single drove in the game’s first run. Clevenger then grounded into a fielder’s choice to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead.

It remained that way until the sixth, when consecutive singles again put runners on the corners. Cruz then lofted a fly ball deep enough to center to bring home Adam Jones.

Davis added his third homer of the season with two outs in the eighth.

By that point, the only drama was whether Tillman would finish the game. The Orioles had two relievers up in the bullpen in the ninth, and the Royals got the leadoff man on base. But Tillman calmly got the next three batters to ground out to end the game.

“We talked to him between innings, like we always do. It was a lot of effort but there was no real stressful innings for him,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “We had guys up and there was a point he was coming out of the game, but he was not going to be denied.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Nelson Cruz homered and the first-place Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals 2-1 on Thursday night to snap a four-game losing streak.

Cruz homered in the fourth after Chris Davis drew a walk to lead off the inning. It was Cruz’s 12th home run, which is second in the American League to the 15 of Chicago White Sox rookie Jose Abreu. Cruz’s 35 RBIs are tied for second in the AL.

Wei-Yin Chen (5-2) limited the Royals to one run and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings with one walk and one strikeout. Chen, who is 5-1 in his past seven starts, was removed in the sixth after Salvador Perez walked and Alex Gordon singled with one out. Darren O’Day replaced Chen and struck out Danny Valencia and retried Johnny Giavotella on a fly to right.

Royals rookie right-hander Yordano Ventura (2-3) struck out nine and walked one in 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and seven hits. After Cruz’s home run, Ventura retired the next 10 batters, striking out seven, including six straight at one stretch.

Valencia’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the fourth scored Eric Hosmer for the only run off Chen.

Left-hander Zack Britton, who had not allowed a run in 7 1/3 innings and eight appearances, worked a perfect ninth for his first major league save. Manager Buck Showalter elected to go to Britton after closer Tommy Hunter blew his past two save chances.

The Royals did not have a baserunner off four Baltimore relievers, who retired 11 straight.

The Orioles, who went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, threatened in the seventh and eighth innings, but came away empty.

Gordon, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner, threw out J.J. Hardy at the plate to end the seventh for his fourth outfield assist this season and his 58th since moving to the outfield in 2011. Hardy attempted to score from second on Nick Markakis’ single.

Manny Machado and Adam Jones led off the Orioles eighth with singles off Louis Coleman, the third Kansas City pitcher. Kelvin Herrera replaced Coleman and struck out Davis and Cruz and retired Steve Clevenger on a grounder to strand the runners.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — There’s been so much talk about Mike Moustakas at the plate that the third baseman ignored the conversation Wednesday — even after doing something positive.

Moustakas hit a three-run double in the second inning to account for Kansas City’s only runs, and Jason Vargas and the Royals’ bullpen made the meager offense work in a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies that completed a two-game sweep.

Afterward, reporters peppered Moustakas with a series of questions about his decisive double, and each time he responded that Vargas pitched a great game.

Moustakas steadfastly refused to address his own hit.

“It’s a big game for us against a great team. Feels good to go out there and get a W with the way that Vargas pitched,” said Moustakas, who entered the game hitting .147 on the year.

Moustakas did answer questions about his slumping performance during a lengthy session with reporters the previous day. But he was downright defiant when he was approached on Wednesday.

He did talk about a nice play he made on defense, when he teamed with catcher Salvador Perez to pick off Charlie Culberson at third. The out came with the outcome still in the balance.

“Moose coming up clutch was huge,” said Vargas, who was perfectly willing to talk about the game’s biggest hit. “A big chance to put them in a hole early and we did.”

Meanwhile, Vargas (4-1) did not allow a hit until the fourth inning and did not allow a run until Drew Stubbs belted a two-run homer to left in the seventh.

Louis Coleman got the Royals out of the inning without any more damage, and Kelvin Herrera worked a perfect eighth. Greg Holland then pitched a shaky ninth for his 10th save.

After giving up a one-out single to Carlos Gonzalez and walking Nolan Arenado, Holland got Justin Morneau to hit a grounder to second. The ball was fielded cleanly and Kansas City got the runner there, but Morneau barely beat the throw to first base to keep the game going.

Holland promptly struck out Stubbs to leave the tying run on third.

“I think we’ve hit a little bump in the road here offensively,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “It’s safe to say that we’re struggling a little bit offensively. We’ve got to go back home and get it going again. No doubt about it, we’ve hit a little a little slide offensively.”

Jhoulys Chacin (1-1) pitched six gritty innings for Colorado, yielding seven hits and two walks.

The Rockies came into the two-game series swinging the best bats in the majors, but they were silenced by some stingy pitching. James Shields was their foil in a 5-1 Royals victory in Tuesday night’s opener, combining with the bullpen on a 12-strikeout performance.

Vargas was just as tough, striking out a season-high eight in 6 2/3 innings.

One of those strikeouts proved to be especially important: Troy Tulowitzki was left looking at a called third strike in the fourth inning. The leading hitter in the major leagues argued with plate umpire Dan Bellino over the location, which appeared down and in, and continued their one-sided conversation when he reached the dugout. Bellino responded by ejecting him.

“I felt like it was over once Tulo went back to the dugout,” Weiss said. “He heard him say something and that’s when he threw him out.”

D.J. LeMahieu took his spot in the lineup. And when the Rockies had runners on the corners in the sixth, it was LeMahieu rather than Tulowitzki at the plate. He struck out.

“Sometimes you just get caught up in the moment,” Tulowitzki said, “but to sit there and say do you regret doing that, no, because we weren’t playing well the last couple of games. Sometimes that lights a little spark in the team.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Moments after James Shields struck out Rockies slugger Troy Tulowitzki, catcher Salvador Perez popped to his feet behind the plate and demanded the ball.

Shields raised his hands in utter confusion.

“He was like, `What’s going on? This is a good ball. I like this ball,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, “`and Salvy is making me throw the ball back in.”

It took Shields a moment — and some help from the scoreboard — to realize he had just reached 1,500 career strikeouts. It came in the sixth inning Tuesday night as he struck out the side, highlighting Kansas City’s 5-1 victory over hot-hitting Colorado.

“Normally when the umpire calls for the ball, the hitter is checking the ball or whatever, wants to take it out of play,” Shields said with a grin. “And I’m like, `I just struck the guy out!’ But once they pointed at the scoreboard I knew what was going on.”

The only run Shields (5-3) allowed came on an RBI single by Justin Morneau in the fourth inning. Shields wound up striking out eight without issuing a walk over seven sharp innings.

Perez helped him out with the bat, too, hitting a solo homer. Alcides Escobar drove in a pair of runs and Lorenzo Cain added a two-run shot to provide plenty of support.

Franklin Morales (3-3) gave up four runs for the Rockies. He allowed eight hits and four walks without a strikeout in five innings, needing 99 pitches just to get that far.

“I need to pitch better, man, because that’s my job,” he said. “I try to do the best I can, but when I’m behind in the count every time I got in trouble.”

The Royals jumped on Morales right from the start, a pair of double plays the only thing keeping the game from getting out of hand early. Still, Kansas City was able to coax a run across on a two-out single by Escobar to take the lead in the second inning.

Cain made it a 3-1 lead with his two-run shot in the fourth. It was the first home run by the Royals’ injury-prone outfielder since July 4 against Cleveland. The ball landed in the bullpen in left field to end a drought for Cain spanning 206 at-bats.

Perez added his solo shot in the fifth, the ball landing in just about the same spot.

That was more than enough support for Shields, who induced a double play to escape a jam in the second inning and then left two runners aboard in the fourth during a nice bounce-back performance at Kauffman Stadium.

In his previous home start, Shields allowed eight runs and 12 hits in a loss to Detroit.

“He did a good job of shutting this lineup down,” Rockies catcher Jordan Pacheco said.

When Shields recorded his milestone strikeout, the crowd at the K gave him a standing ovation. Shields appeared to be confused by the spontaneous applause, raising his hands on the mound as if to say, “What?” Eventually, he turned around on the rubber to see his strikeout mark on the giant video board in center field and started chuckling.

After stepping off the back of the mound, Shields tipped his cap and went back to work. He struck out Carlos Gonzalez to end the inning, then set down the Rockies in order in the seventh, finishing off his night by striking out Brandon Barnes for the second time.

“I knew about 10 days ago I was getting close,” Shields said. “To be honest with you, I didn’t even know how many strikeouts I had in the game. But that was a pretty special moment. Once I realized it, it’s kind of crazy to think — 1,500 strikeouts is quite a bit of strikeouts.”

— Associated Press —

SEATTLE (AP) — Johnny Giavotella took advantage of a rattled Seattle reliever to lift the Kansas City Royals.

His three-run homer in the seventh inning helped the Royals beat the Mariners 9-7 on Sunday.

The Royals’ seventh began with a double by Eric Hosmer. Reliever Danny Farquhar then struck out Billy Butler and appeared to strike out Danny Valencia on a 2-2 curveball. But home plate umpire Marcus Pattillo called it a ball, causing Farquhar to throw up his arms in disgust.

`’I’m pretty sure umpires don’t like that,” Valencia said.

Farquhar certainly was miffed and it seemed to have an impact on the rest of his inning. He would go on to walk Valencia and Alex Gordon, loading the bases. Lorenzo Cain tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center. Then Giavotella, promoted from Triple-A Omaha on Thursday, hit Farquhar’s first pitch for his first home run.

“Sometimes you want pitches and they are not called,” Farquhar said. “You can’t let that affect you. I want everything called a strike, so that is nothing different for me.”

Valencia added, `it’s part of the game. It’s going to happen. No one’s perfect out there. Fortunately, it was in my favor.”

Alcides Escobar had given the Royals the early lead with a second-inning grand slam off starter Roenis Elias.

But the Mariners rallied behind Dustin Ackley’s two homers and Kyle Seager’s two-run shot to take a 7-5 lead by the fifth.

As the Royals began to rally in the seventh, manager Ned Yost, with his bullpen rested and ready, turned to batting coach Pedro Grifol and said, “if tie or take the lead here, we’re pretty set up with (Aaron) Crow, (Wade) Davis and Holly (closer Greg Holland) ready. Then, boom, it happened. And, boom, it worked out.”

Crow and Davis held the Mariners to one hit each and Holland came on in the ninth to pick up his ninth save in 10 opportunities.

Louis Coleman (1-0), who worked a scoreless sixth, earned the victory.

The Mariners committed a season-high five errors.

“One thing I don’t do is make excuses for guys,” Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said, “so the onus is on the players in the locker room today. You got a question about errors, you go talk to them.”

McClendon would use Pattillo’s inconsistent strike zone as an excuse.

“I’m not going to argue for that type of stuff,” he said. “Listen, we didn’t play a very good game. You can analyze any way you want to. I told the team, `we didn’t play very good.’ We kicked ourselves in the ass today. It’s that simple.”

Yost, when asked about Farquhar’s borderline pitch, said, “we were upset when we didn’t get a third strike on (Mike) Zunino, too, which ended up costing us two runs. That’s part of the game.”

That pitch came in the Mariners three-run, second-inning rally. After Ackley hit his first home run to open the inning, Stephen Romero was hit by a pitch, bring up Zunino.

Starter Jeremy Guthrie believed he had Zunino struck out but it was called a ball. Zunino then singled to right and both runners scored on a double by Brad Miller, ending a 0-for-19 slide.

A pair of errors in the fourth allowed the Royals to build the lead by to 5-3. Giavotella walked and Escobar singled. Catcher Zunino tried to pick Giavotella off second but his throw scooted into center for an error, with the runners advancing. First baseman Justin Smoak then bobbled Nori Aoki’s bouncer, allowing Giavotella to score.

Seager, who missed the previous two games with flu-like symptoms, hit his sixth home run in the fourth followed by Ackley’s second, his first career multiple home-run game. Ackley also had a home run in the sixth inning Saturday, giving him three in three straight at-bats. He has four on the season.

“I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well,” Ackley said, “putting good swings on balls and not missing things.”

The Mariners added a run in the fifth on Corey Hart’s two-out single, scoring James Jones from second.

— Associated Press —

SEATTLE (AP) — Hisashi Iwakuma scattered four hits over eight innings and Corey Hart hit an RBI single to lift the Seattle Mariners over the Kansas City Royals 1-0 on Thursday night.

Seattle won for the 11th time in 14 games since losing eight straight from April 15-22.

Iwakuma (2-0) was making his second start after beginning the season on the disabled list with a strained tendon on the middle finger of his pitching hand. The All-Star right-hander struck out seven and walked none.

Fernando Rodney worked around a pair of walks in the ninth to earn his 10th save in 11 chances. The Mariners have shut out the Royals for 27 straight innings dating to September 2013.

Danny Duffy (1-3) gave up one run and two hits in six-plus innings. He has allowed two hits and a run in each of his first two starts this season after pitching out of the bullpen to begin the year.

Iwakuma has thrown 48 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings against AL Central teams, the second-longest streak by any pitcher against one division dating to 1974. Orel Hershiser tossed 55 straight scoreless innings against NL West opponents in 1988.

The Mariners pushed across the lone run in the third. Mike Zunino led off with a double for Seattle’s first hit and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. After a strikeout, Duffy intentionally walked Robinson Cano. Hart followed with a single up the middle.

Seattle batters have driven in runs three out of the six times opposing teams have intentionally walked Cano this season.

Kansas City managed just four singles and advanced a runner to second base only once during the first eight innings. The Royals had their best opportunity to score in the ninth when Rodney walked a pair, but the closer struck out Billy Butler and induced a game-ending groundout.

— Associated Press —

SAN DIEGO (AP) — James Shields scattered seven hits over seven innings, Eric Hosmer drove in a season-high four runs and the Kansas City Royals beat the San Diego Padres 8-0 Wednesday.

The Royals scored three times in the first and that was plenty for Shields (4-3). He struck out four, walked two and threw 118 pitches.

Shields won his fourth straight road start of the season. Since 2013, he is 14-4 in 24 road starts with a 2.00 ERA.

Two relievers finished for the Royals. The Padres were shut out for a major league-high sixth time this season. San Diego has lost six of eight overall.

Andrew Cashner (2-5) took the loss as he was again derailed by an anemic offense and shoddy defense.

Cashner, who lasted a season-low four innings, had trouble from the start. He threw 43 pitches in the first, hurt by a pair of errors from shortstop Everth Cabrera that led to two unearned runs.

Alcides Escobar reached when Cabrera misplayed his ground ball after Nori Aoki opened with a single. Hosmer hit a two-run single, Alex Gordon reached base two batters later when Cabrera mishandled his grounder and Danny Valencia followed with a broken-bat, RBI single.

Cashner ended the inning by getting Shields to ground out with the bases in a nine-pitch at-bat.

The Padres had a chance to cut into their deficit in the second when they got three hits. But Cameron Maybin was too aggressive rounding second base on an infield single, and Escobar slid in behind from shortstop, took Hosmer’s throw from first base and made the tag.

Padres manager Bud Black requested a review, but the call stood. It marked the first time in five appeals this season that Black had lost.

The Royals’ lead grew to 4-0 in the third when Gordon doubled and later scored on Mike Moustakas’ sacrifice fly.

The Padres tied a season high with three errors, and had a passed ball and wild pitch in allowing four unearned runs.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — It was little surprise that Billy Butler broke up Justin Verlander’s no-hit bid Sunday.

The Detroit ace was cruising until Butler’s two-out single in the sixth inning of Tigers’ 9-4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Butler singled cleanly to right on a 1-2 pitch, leaving him with a .432 career average in 74 at-bats against Verlander.

“I didn’t make a good pitch,” Verlander said. “It was a fastball. I didn’t throw a good one.”

Kansas City’s only runners before the single were Nori Aoki, who walked three times, and Alex Gordon, who walked once.

“You’re never not aware of a no-hitter,” Butler said.

Verlander won his fourth straight decision and the Tigers extended their winning streak to a season-high five games. He pitched no-hitters against Milwaukee in June 2007 and versus Toronto in May 2011.

“It always enters early on,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s a long way to go. It’s going to be on your mind a little bit, but you can’t let it be there too much. Because we’ve seen it a 100 times where a guy gives up a base hit in a tight ball game and they’ve got a no-hitter going and give it from there.”

Verlander (4-1) allowed three runs, four hits and four walks in seven innings with seven strikeouts. Jarrod Dyson hit a two-run triple in the seventh and scored on a sacrifice fly by Aoki.

“There are ups and downs. Hopefully we’ll get over it soon,” Dyson said. “They swung the bats, and we didn’t. We’ve just got to bring our ‘A’ game. It wasn’t there all series.”

Backed with a 7-0 lead, Verlander improved to 17-5 against the Royals, the best winning percentage (.773) among active pitchers with 10 decisions or more.

“We caught a team on fire,” Butler said.

Nick Castellanos and Alex Avila homered for the Tigers, who had 16 hits, and Torii Hunter had three hits and three RBIs, extending his hitting streak to 11 games.

Rajai Davis and Andrew Romine also had three hits each. Davis raised his average to .337, scored three runs and stole two bases, raising his total to 11. Romine’s three hits matched his career high.

Detroit is 5-0 against the Royals this year and has won seven of eight overall. Kansas City, outscored 26-8 in the series, is 0-4 this month after going 8-20 last May.

“I don’t think it matters who is in first on May fourth,” Butler said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”

Jason Vargas (2-1) gave up seven runs and 11 hits in five innings — he’s allowed 12 runs and 21 hits over 11 1/3 innings in his last two starts.

“We were patient and made adjustments,” Hunter said. “Vargas is a guy that keeps you off balance with his good changeup and his fastball is kind of sneaky. Usually he’s a thorn in our side. We just made some adjustments as a team and we prevailed.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Tigers’ Drew Smyly went from the bullpen to tossing seven shutout innings as a starter. Nick Castellanos is tied with Miguel Cabrera for the team lead in RBIs.

Not exactly what Detroit manager Brad Ausmus expected at the start of the season.

Both of those pleasant surprises factored into a 9-2 rout of the Royals on Saturday night. Smyly picked up where fellow starter Rick Porcello left off by keeping Kansas City off the scoreboard, and Castellanos drove in three runs before Detroit tacked on the final sixth in the ninth inning.

So far, Castellanos has driven in 17 runs — more than Victor Martinez, Torii Hunter, Ian Kinsler and everybody else on the Tigers that doesn’t have an MVP award to his credit.

“I don’t know that would have been my guess,” Ausmus said, “but this is fine. I’m glad.”

Porcello and the Tigers bullpen retired the final 18 hitters in an 8-2 victory the previous night, and Smyly (2-1) retired the first four he faced. After a issuing a walk to Alex Gordon, the former reliever then retired the next six in a dominant performance.

Smyly wound up allowing two hits and two walks before giving way to Joba Chamberlain, who threw a perfect eighth. Phil Coke allowed two runs in the ninth to lose the shutout.

The win was the Tigers’ fifth straight over Kansas City.

“Smyly was outstanding,” Ausmus said. “I think he had nine days since his last start. Pitch count wasn’t a factor. I just decided he had done his job.”

Duffy moved from the bullpen back to the rotation in place of Bruce Chen, who went on the disabled list this week with a bulging disc in his back. Duffy was on a pitch count and wound up lasting just four innings, allowing two hits and walking four while throwing 75 pitches.

“Any time we lose, I’m not going to be happy with an outing,” he said. “But I felt like I kept my team in the game. I pounded the strike zone much as I could.”

Kansas City played without catcher Salvador Perez, who was given the night off after fouling a pitch off his shin in the series opener. Royals manager Ned Yost said he expects the All-Star to be back in the lineup Sunday — though they sure could have used his bat in this one.

The only hits the Royals could muster off Smyly came on Eric Hosmer’s double in the fourth and a single in the fifth by Danny Valencia, who was thrown out trying to reach second.

“These things turn around quick. You look at Detroit’s club and they are swinging the bats really good, all of them. They’re hot right now,” Yost said. “They’ve got good pitching, which attributes to some of it. But we think we’re a better offensive club than we’ve shown so far.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers took advantage of Duffy’s erratic ways.

The left-hander walked the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and Castellanos followed with a liner to left that Alex Gordon caught on the run. But rather than throw home immediately, the Gold Glove winner hesitated, and that gave Miguel Cabrera time to score.

In the sixth, reliever Louis Coleman allowed a double to Cabrera and intentionally walked Victor Martinez, who has been hot all series. Herrera came in and Castellanos ripped a double to right, driving in both runs while ending a 0-for-15 slump.

That was plenty of support for Smyly, who made 63 appearances out of the bullpen last season and two this season, but who may be firmly establishing himself as the fifth starter.

The victory was Smyly’s first as a starter since beating the Royals on July 6, 2012.

“He was throwing strikes,” Ausmus said. “He seemed to be using all his pitches, which is important as a starter. He pitched really well.”

— Associated Press —