Jason Vargas shelled in Royals 9-4 loss

The Jason Vargas Regression Tour kicked off at Kauffman Stadium today, as the southpaw surrendered seven runs over five innings in the Royals 9-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers.

Vargas escaped the first inning without allowing any runs, but gave up at least one run in every other inning he tossed. Nick Castellanos smacked a solo homer in the second, while Alex Avila blasted a two-run bomb in the fifth. Torii Hunter and Ian Kinsler each hit a RBI-single against Vargas, while Miguel Cabrera roped a two-run double. Overall, Vargas surrendered 11 hits and walked two, only striking out three.

Justin Verlander turned in a much more impressive performance for Detroit, keeping the Royals hitless for 5 2/3 innings. Verlander did issue four walks, including three to Norichika Aoki before surrendering a two-out single to Billy Butler in the sixth.

The Royals tagged Verlander for three runs in the seventh. Salvador Perez cracked a leadoff double, then Alcides Escobar followed with a one-out single. Jarrod Dyson drove in both runners with a triple over Torii Hunter's head, scoring on an Aoki sacrifice fly.

Detroit scored a pair of insurance runs against Michael Mariot in the eighth. Hunter cracked a single with the bases loaded to drive in two, although Mariot did strike out Miguel Cabreara, so that's kinda cool I guess.

Aoki collected an RBI in the ninth, lifting a two-out single to center to drive in Mike Moustakas. That hit gave KC their fourth run of the day, and ended the stupid "The Royals are undefeated when scoring four runs this year" stat.

Kansas City is now 14-16 on the season after dropping three straight to the Tigers. The team will attempt to put this putrid weekend behind them tomorrow when they travel to the Left Coast to face the San Diego Padres. Yordano Ventura will start the first game tomorrow night, facing off against Eric Stults.