KANSAS CITY -- One of the Royals’ top rotation arms could not stop the Tigers on Monday night. Neither could Bobby Witt Jr.’s grand slam and, later, his 200th hit of the season.

The Tigers outpaced the Royals in a wacky and back-and-forth game, handing Kansas City a 7-6 loss in the opener of a high-stakes series at Kauffman Stadium.

Detroit is playing for its season as it chases the final American League Wild Card spot, of which the Tigers now sit just 1 1/2 games behind the Twins for the third and final spot. The Royals, meanwhile, are working their way to their first postseason berth since 2015 and hold the second AL Wild Card spot, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Twins.

Kansas City struck first when the bottom of the order loaded the bases in the third against Reese Olson, and Witt sent a curveball to the Royals Hall of Fame for a grand slam, his 32nd homer of the year.

Two innings later, Witt helped the Royals widen the gap with an RBI infield single up the first-base line. It was his 200th hit of the season, making him the third player in Royals history with a 200-plus hit season in his age-24 season or younger, joining George Brett in 1976 and Willie Wilson in 1980.

But the lead was short-lived. Royals starter Seth Lugo struggled mightily with his command on Monday, leading to his second shortest start of the season. He needed 96 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

Lugo was coming off three consecutive starts of seven innings and one run or fewer, but the Tigers were all over him and forced some deep counts.

After Lugo allowed three runs in the fifth inning -- one because of an errant throw by Witt, followed by Colt Keith’s two-run home run -- the Royals turned to their bullpen. Sam Long got the final out of the fifth, but Andy Ibáñez led off the sixth inning with a pinch-hit single and scored three batters later on Wenceel Pérez’s pinch-hit, two-run, game-tying double.

Matt Vierling’s go-ahead RBI single off John Schreiber turned what was a four-run deficit into a one-run lead with back-to-back three-run innings.