DETROIT (Interstat) — Michael Wacha turned in seven strong innings and Nick Loftin delivered a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning to lift the Kansas City Royals to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.

Wacha allowed two earned runs on six hits while striking out three and walking one, improving his recent run of quality starts. The right-hander came in off a win over San Francisco on July 20 in which he allowed one run over six innings. Against the Tigers, Wacha worked efficiently, retiring the side in order in the third and fifth innings and escaping a two-on, one-out jam in the sixth.

The Royals snapped a two-game losing streak to Detroit, which had taken the first two games of the series by scores of 2-1 and 4-3. Kansas City improved to 45-62, while the Tigers fell to 51-55.

Detroit starter Casey Mize matched Wacha for most of the afternoon. Mize went six innings, allowing one earned run on three hits with three strikeouts and no walks. He stranded a runner in scoring position in the first and escaped a leadoff single in the fourth.

The game remained scoreless until the top of the second, when Vinnie Pasquantino led off with a single to center. Nick Loftin sacrificed him to second, and Michael Massey followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Pasquantino to give Kansas City a 1-0 lead.

Detroit answered immediately in the bottom half. Riley Greene doubled sharply to center, and Hao-Yu Lee doubled to right, scoring Greene to tie the game at 1-1. Lee’s double was his ninth of the season.

The Tigers took the lead in the fourth. With one out, Lee launched a solo home run to left field, his sixth of the season, putting Detroit ahead 2-1.

Mize continued to work efficiently, retiring the Royals in order in the third and fifth innings. Kansas City managed only a two-out single from Pasquantino in the fourth but could not push a run across.

Wacha held the Tigers in check after the fourth. He retired six of the next seven batters, with only a two-out single by Colt Keith in the fifth interrupting the stretch. In the sixth, Kerry Carpenter singled and Greene walked, putting two on with one out. Wacha got Lee to ground out to second, advancing both runners, then induced a popout from Zach McKinstry to end the threat.

The Royals tied the game in the seventh. Salvador Perez led off with a solo home run to left field, his 15th of the season, making it 2-2. Pasquantino followed with a single, but Mize struck out Loftin, then Massey and Isaac Collins made outs to end the inning.

Kansas City threatened in the eighth against Detroit reliever Tyler Holton. Carter Jensen singled with one out, and after Lane Thomas struck out, Jac Caglianone reached on a fielding error by second baseman Gleyber Torres, putting runners at first and third. Holton got Perez to ground into a force out at second to end the inning.

The game remained tied heading into the ninth. Detroit left-hander Jacob Waguespack, who had entered in the eighth, retired Pasquantino on a groundout to start the ninth. Loftin then homered to left field, a solo shot that cleared the fence for his fifth home run of the season, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead.

Waguespack struck out Massey and got Collins to fly out to left, but the damage was done.

Kansas City closer Alex Lange entered for the bottom of the ninth and earned his 10th save of the season. Riley Greene singled to lead off, but Lee struck out swinging. McKinstry singled to right, moving Greene to third. Lange struck out Matt Vierling and got Spencer Torkelson to pop out to catcher Carter Jensen to end the game.

Daniel Lynch IV pitched a scoreless eighth inning, allowing one hit, and picked up the win to improve to 4-2. Waguespack took the loss, falling to 0-1.

Offensively, the Royals managed seven hits. Pasquantino had two singles, Perez homered, Loftin homered, and Jensen added two singles. Loftin also drove in two runs.

Detroit had eight hits. Greene went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Lee went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and two RBIs. Keith doubled and singled.

The game drew an announced attendance of 32,867 and lasted 2 hours, 22 minutes.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Detroit 6, Kansas City 5. Interstat’s ELO system gave Detroit a 59.90 percent probability to win. The Tigers were installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5. The total score of 5 went over the over-under line of 8.