Skubal expected to start as Tigers host the Royals

Updated Sep. 25, 2021 3:20 a.m. ET

Associated Press

Kansas City Royals (70-83, fourth in the AL Central) vs. Detroit Tigers (74-79, third in the AL Central)

Detroit; Saturday, 6:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Jon Heasley (0-1, 9.00 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 2 strikeouts) Tigers: Tarik Skubal (8-12, 4.25 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 162 strikeouts)

LINE: Tigers -129, Royals +109; over/under is 9 runs

BOTTOM LINE: Detroit and Kansas City will meet on Saturday.

The Tigers are 41-37 in home games in 2020. Detroit's lineup has 174 home runs this season, Robbie Grossman leads them with 23 homers.

The Royals have gone 34-44 away from home. Kansas City has a collective on-base percentage of .304, led by Nicky Lopez with a mark of .366.

The Royals won the last meeting 3-1. Domingo Tapia earned his fourth victory and Ryan O'Hearn went 2-for-2 with an RBI for Kansas City. Alex Lange took his third loss for Detroit.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jonathan Schoop leads the Tigers with 161 hits and has 78 RBIs.

Salvador Perez leads the Royals with 46 home runs and is slugging .543.

LAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 7-3, .221 batting average, 2.81 ERA, outscored opponents by three runs

Royals: 5-5, .287 batting average, 4.77 ERA, outscored by one run

INJURIES: Tigers: Spencer Turnbull: (forearm), Julio Teheran: (shoulder), Gregory Soto: (finger), Rony Garcia: (knee), Miguel Del Pozo: (covid-19), Jose Cisnero: (elbow), Matthew Boyd: (elbow), Derek Hill: (knee), Jake Rogers: (arm).

Royals: Mike Minor: (shoulder), Richard Lovelady: (elbow), Brad Keller: (shoulder), Jakob Junis: (shoulder), Jesse Hahn: (shoulder), Wade Davis: (shoulder).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.