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. While their AL Central hopes are dwindling as they sit five games behind the first-place Guardians, the Royals still sit in the second AL Wild Card spot, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Twins.

“It was an intense game,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Back and forth, both teams putting everything on the line. You get out to a lead, feel pretty good. You know they’re not going to go away.”

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 and fourth career grand slam, which matches Carlos Beltrán for the 4th most in franchise history.

“I just happened to hang a bad curveball to one of the best players in the world,” Olson said. “And that’s what he does.”

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.

“It’s cool any time you do that, but you obviously want to win those games,” Witt said.

But the Tigers’ patient approach against Lugo eventually paid off for them. He needed 96 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings, his second shortest outing of the season, allowing four runs on eight hits, two walks and a wild pitch with four strikeouts.

Lugo was coming off three consecutive starts of seven innings and one run or fewer. Of Lugo’s 31 starts this year, Monday was just the second time he didn’t finish five innings and only the seventh time he didn’t finish at least six innings.

“A few times, we came into the dugout a little frustrated,” Lugo said. “They weren’t swinging at some of the pitches that I was throwing. … The more pitches they see, the better chance they got to put a good swing on a mistake.”

The biggest mistake was a changeup to Colt Keith, who sent it to right-center field for a two-run homer as part of a three-run fifth inning. The other run came because of an errant throw by Witt.

Reliever Sam Long got the final out of the fifth, but the Tigers tied the game in the sixth. Matt Vierling’s go-ahead RBI single off John Schreiber turned what was once a four-run deficit into a one-run lead after back-to-back three-run innings.

“It feels like September,” Lugo said. “... I know they’ve been swinging it well lately, and they showed it again tonight.”

The Royals had opportunities to break through offensively. Witt was stranded on second base in the fifth when Salvador Perez popped out and Michael Massey struck out.

Kansas City’s best opportunity was in the seventh, when Yuli Gurriel led off the inning with a single, and pinch-runner Garrett Hampson went to third on Tommy Pham’s single to put runners on first and third with one out for Witt, who flied out to right-field foul territory. The throw bounced off catcher Jake Rogers’ chest protector, but Hampson didn’t try to score.

He called it a split-second decision, not wanting to make the third out at home with Perez coming to the plate but also knowing that the Royals needed to score in the late innings. Perez flied out to center to end the inning.

“With the [way the] inning unfolded, obviously I wish I had taken a gamble,” Hampson said. “If Salvy hits a three-run homer, it looks like a good decision. Obviously looking back, seeing what happened at the plate, yeah, I wish I would have scored the tying run. But it’s a split-second decision.”