KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Considering how things started on this trip — three messy losses to the Athletics in Sacramento — the Detroit Tigers are coming home with an 80-58 record, giving back only one game in the standings.

That feels like a success.

"To put it lightly, we had kind of a (lousy) series in Sacramento," said catcher Jake Rogers, whose two-run triple in the fifth inning sent the Tigers to a 5-0 series-claiming win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium Sunday. "And it was important for us to get back and play good baseball again. All the guys have done a really good job of having short memories and coming back from that adversity."

The win pushed the Tigers' lead in the division back to 9 1/2 games over the Royals.

"Yeah, Sacramento wasn't great for pretty much anyone and to be able to learn from it and move on and show up here Friday ready to play, that's what's important," said Tarik Skubal, who further stamped himself in the Tigers' record books with seven scoreless innings. "It was great to get back to the team we know we are."

The last time Skubal pitched at Kauffman Stadium, July 31, he threw seven scoreless, two-hit innings.

He was similarly dialed-in Sunday, again blanking the Royals over seven innings, this time on four hits. And, in the process, established a franchise record that had stood since 1969.

It was Skubal’s 11th scoreless start of at least six innings this season, one better than Denny McLain’s mark set 56 years ago. Eight of those 11 were seven innings or longer. He lowered his league-leading ERA to 2.18.

"That's cool," he said. "I'm more focused on winning and putting my team in a position to win. But anytime your name gets thrown around with those types of names in Tigers history, it's an honor."

The only Royals hitter that gave him any trouble was Maikel Garcia, who whacked a pair of doubles. One of those led off the third inning and he advanced to third with one out.

Skubal bowed his neck and struck out Vinnie Pasquantino on three pitches, dotting the outer edge with a 98-mph four-seam fastball to finish him off. Next, he shattered the bat of Salvador Perez with another sawblade heater, ending the inning with a groundout to short.

"Crazy," Rogers said. "I feel like me and Skub have done that a lot. First and third and one out and you're thinking if Skub makes a pitch, we're out of it. He's such a great talent. Getting out of that situation was huge for the boys."

It was a different method of operation for Skubal. It wasn’t his usual power show. Just the four punch-outs and eight whiffs on 47 swings. But he effectively and efficiently pitched to contact.

"The game isn't about striking everybody out," Skubal said. "Would I like to do that? One-hundred percent. But it's about getting outs however you can get them. That team doesn't strike out a ton, especially recently. I feel like in the last month, their strikeouts are way down.

"It doesn't matter who's pitching and how good your stuff is that day, you've got to know the lineup ... If these guys want to get themselves out, by all means, do it."

The Royals put 20 balls in play with a meager average exit velocity of 86 mph.

"He's a buzzsaw," Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. "The guy is a really good pitcher. He's got four pitches, upper-90s with a two-seamer and four-seamer — he's got everything. There's a reason he's a Cy Young Award winner. I thought we competed pretty well and limited the strikeouts.

"But it was a lot of soft-contact fly-balls and that's what he does. He doesn't give you too many opportunities."

The Tigers' hitters got their work done, too, though they contained most of it to one inning.

Facing Royals right-hander Michael Wacha for the fourth time this season and the second time in a week, they still took a few innings to get reacquainted.

Wacha breezed through the first four, allowing only a single to Riley Greene.

But things turned abruptly in the fifth.

It started with a walk (Spencer Torkelson) and a bloop (Zach McKinstry). Then came the fireworks.

Rogers, who is 6 for 9 against Wacha in his career, lashed a two-run triple to the base of the wall in center field.

"I knew I got it but I know this is a big park," Rogers said. "I was hoping the wind would catch it. I put good wood on it. I was watching it fly and saw it bounce off the wall so I just kept going."

Then with two outs, Colt Keith seared an RBI double (106 mph off the bat) and scored on a single by Gleyber Torres.

"In the beginning it was just Skubal on Wacha and not much action on either side," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. "And then we had a really good inning including a couple of big two-out hits that opened the game up."

That quickly, the Tigers provided Skubal with a four-run cushion and Wacha was out of the game.

"When you can put up a four-spot with him on the mound, man, you feel good," Hinch said.

When you can shake off arguably your worst-played series of the year, take two of three from the team closest to you in the division and start September with a 9 1/2-game lead, that also has to feel good for the Tigers.

"The series aren't connected," Hinch said. "We reset after all of them. But we wanted to win the series, go home on a good note and continue to chip away at the win total."

Done and done.

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