Detroit @ Kansas City preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 25, 2018 ) Detroit 8, Kansas City 4

Detroit's Victor Martinez may be 39 years old and on the downside of a productive major league career while playing his final season, but his bat still has some hits in it as the Tigers begin a nine-game road trip with the first of two contests against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday. Martinez (.250, six home runs, 43 RBIs in 115 games) is batting .289 in August - his highest average for any month this season - after going 2-for-5 with an RBI double Sunday.

“I’m pretty sure this is going to be it,” Martinez, who is eighth among Venezuelans in career hits with 2,137, told reporters earlier this month. “This is going to be it. I’m just enjoying these last six weeks and then finally go home.” Detroit is coming off a 2-4 homestand that included a three-game sweep at the hands of the Chicago White Sox over the weekend while Kansas City began its eight-game homestand by taking two of three from Cleveland, the runaway leader of the American League Central. The Royals (40-91) have the worst home record in baseball (20-45) while the Tigers (53-78) are 19-44 on the road - only Baltimore is worse away from home (16-50). Detroit's Matthew Boyd is 4-2 with a 2.63 ERA in his last six starts - a stretch that began with a victory at Kansas City - and opposes Jakob Junis, who is 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA in three outings versus the Tigers this season.

TV: 8:15 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, FS Kansas City

PITCHING MATCHUP: Tigers LH Matthew Boyd (8-11, 4.09 ERA) vs. Royals RH Jakob Junis (6-12, 4.70)

Boyd has lowered his ERA by 0.53 during his hot streak, which included six shutout innings with six strikeouts in Detroit's 7-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday. “The way things have gone, the growth that’s happened, it’s good to see the fruits of that in that sense (being among the league leaders),” the 27-year-old Washington native recently told the Detroit Free Press. “At the same time, I’m looking ahead, at the next few years. I realize I can be even better and I know how to do that. That’s my goal and I am excited about what’s to come.” Whit Merrifield is 8-for-19 and Salvador Perez has two home runs in 24 at-bats versus Boyd, who is 3-6 with a 6.40 ERA in 12 starts versus Kansas City - 1-2, 3.32 in three outings this season after allowing two runs over six innings of an 8-4 victory July 25 at Kauffman Stadium.

Junis yielded four runs (two earned) and nine hits while striking out five across 5 2/3 innings of a 6-3 loss at Tampa Bay on Wednesday. It was the fourth straight outing that the 25-year-old Illinois native yielded two or fewer earned runs - a stretch in which the Royals scored only nine runs as he went 0-1 with a 2.45 ERA during that span. Nicholas Castellanos is 0-for-10 versus Junis, who is 5-1 with a 3.44 ERA in six games (five starts) versus the Tigers.

WALK-OFFS

1. Detroit CF JaCoby Jones is expected to be in the lineup Tuesday after missing 13 games with a right hamstring strain.

2. Merrifield (.307, 10 home runs, 47 RBIs) recorded his second straight two-hit game Sunday and is hitting .347 in August.

3. Kansas City has won seven of the 13 meetings this year, including four of seven at Kauffmann Stadium, as it bids for its fourth straight season series victory over the Tigers.

PREDICTION: Royals 3, Tigers 2