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Tigers eye seventh straight win in middle tilt with Royals

May 14, 2011 - 2:28 PM (Sports Network) - The red hot Detroit Tigers seek their seventh straight victory this afternoon in the middle contest of a three-game set with Kansas City at Comerica Park

Although Justin Verlander's bid at major league history fell short in Friday's opener, he was still good enough to pitch the surging Tigers to a 3-1 win.

Verlander (4-3) was vying to become the second pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter in consecutive starts, but the bid was broken up in the sixth inning by Melky Cabrera's two-out RBI triple.

After throwing his second career no-hitter against Toronto on Saturday, the 28-year-old ace went eight innings in this one, allowing just one run on two hits and three walks with seven strikeouts to get the win, Detroit's ninth in its last 10 games.

"I started thinking about the no-hitter around the third or fourth inning," Verlander said. "I just kept making my pitches and didn't hold anything back."

Cincinnati's Johnny Vander Meer, of course, threw back-to-back no-hitters in June of 1938.

Luke Hochevar (3-4) surrendered three runs on seven hits in six innings for the Royals, who were coming off their first series win against the Yankees in the Bronx since 1999.

Heading to the hill today for Detroit will be Brad Penny, who has won three of his last four starts and has pitched to a 1.32 ERA in that span. He evened his record at 3-3 on Sunday with 7 2/3 strong innings against Toronto, as he yielded only two earned runs to drop his overall ERA to 4.78. He has surrendered 47 hits in 49 innings of work and has issued 17 walks with 21 strikeouts.

"I thought as the game went on he got the ball down much better," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said after Penny's last start. "He's pitched pretty well lately, and it's kind of gone unnoticed."

Penny has just two career appearances against Kansas City and owns an 0-1 record versus the Royals with a 4.50 ERA.

Opposing him will be left-hander Jeff Francis, who is still searching for his first win despite quality starts in five of his eight outings this season. Francis fell to 0-4 to go along with a 5.09 ERA following a loss to Oakland on Sunday. He has yielded 60 hits in only 46 innings and averages one strikeout every two innings.

Francis didn't figure in the decision of his only other appearance against Detroit.

The Royals took two of three at Detroit from April 8-10.