(Best E Casino) - The Kansas City Royals try to continue their recent mastery of the Detroit Tigers this evening, when the two AL Central rivals begin a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City has beaten the Tigers all six times the teams have met this season.

Hoping to continue that trend for the Royals tonight will be righty Luke Hochevar, who is 6-7 with a 5.10 earned run average. Hochevar had one of the best starts of his young career in his last trip to the hill back on July 11, as he held Seattle to a run and five hits in seven innings. He also struck out four without walking a batter.

Hochevar held the Tigers scoreless in six innings to defeat the Tigers earlier in the season.

Kansas City enters this series after winning the final two tests of its three- game set with the Chicago White Sox. On Sunday, Esteban German had the final say in an offensive clinic, knocking in the game-winning runs with a double in the eighth inning to give the Royals an 8-7 victory.

German finished the day 3-for-3 with the two all-important runs batted in and a run scored. David DeJesus chipped in with three RBI and Mike Aviles added three hits to give the Royals their fifth victory in seven games.

Ramon Ramirez (1-1) got the win despite giving up the lead in the seventh, surrendering two runs on three hits in 1 1/3 innings of work while recording all of his outs via strikeout. Joakim Soria pitched a perfect ninth for his 26th save of the season.

Detroit, meanwhile, managed a split of its four-game set with the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend, winning Sunday's finale by a 5-1 count behind Justin Verlander's three-hit, 8 2/3 inning gem.

Verlander (8-9) walked three batters while striking out three and retiring 16 in a row between the second and seventh innings for Detroit, which is back at .500 (49-49) for the season.

Four Tigers had multi-hit games, including Magglio Ordonez and Marcus Thames, who both hit solo home runs. Ryan Raburn had a pair of RBI singles while Ramon Santiago was 2-for-4.

Heading to the hill for the Tigers tonight will be right-hander Zach Miner, who will be making his first start of the season.

Miner made 16 starts for the injury-depleted Tigers in 2006 before being moving to the bullpen. He went 7-6 with a 4.84 earned run average in those starts, and has compiled a 3-3 record with a 4.23 ERA in 32 appearances out of the bullpen with the big club this year.