Last month, the Detroit Tigers continued their recent dominance of Kansas City by sweeping a three-game series.

On Sunday night, the host Royals can return the favor by handing the reeling Tigers a season-high sixth straight defeat.

From April 14-16, Detroit posted three straight one-run victories over the visiting Royals to record a sixth consecutive winning series between the two American League Central foes.

However, Kansas City rallied for a 4-3 walk-off win Friday. The Royals then used seven strong innings from Michael Wacha, a two-run, inside-the-park-homer from Bobby Witt Jr. and Michael Massey’s conventional three-run shot in a 5-1 victory on Saturday.

Kansas City, which secured its first winning series over the Tigers since August 2024, is 12-5 since losing eight in a row.

“We’ve got a special team,” Witt told Royals.TV. “This is a great series win, but we’re not satisfied. … We’re always trying to get better.”

Witt has recorded three of his five home runs over the last six games.

Massey, meanwhile, is 5-for-11 with two home runs and five RBIs in his last four contests.

Some low-back tightness forced Noah Cameron (2-2, 5.40 ERA) to miss his previous turn in Kansas City’s rotation, but he’s slated to be back on the mound for this Sunday start.

“If it were August or September, I would be very capable of pitching through it,” Cameron told the Royals’ official website of missing his previous scheduled start.

“Just trying to be smart and see where we are. … It’s feeling a lot better.”

Cameron allowed two runs over 10 2/3 innings of his first two starts this season. He since has yielded 20 runs — 17 earned — in 21 innings over his last four games.

Though the left-hander has made 30 career starts for the Royals since debuting last season, this will be his first appearance against the Tigers.

Detroit managed just four hits Saturday and has been outscored 28-11 during a five-game skid that matches the team’s longest losing streak of 2026.

“Just find a way to weather the storm,” said Tigers outfielder Matt Vierling, who went 0-for-4 Saturday.

“Get a couple wins. … Get some momentum.”

Already dealing with injuries to key offensive contributors in Gleyber Torres (oblique) and Javier Baez (ankle), the Tigers could be minus outfielder Kerry Carpenter. He exited Saturday’s contest with shoulder soreness from banging into the wall while misplaying Witt’s hit into that inside-the-park home run.

“It’s next man up,” Vierling said.

Though the Tigers continue searching for some potency at the plate, Riley Greene drove home Saturday’s lone run with a double in the eighth inning. He is batting .385 with eight RBIs in his last 18 contests and batting.458 with five doubles during his last six games at Kansas City.

With ace Tarik Skubal out at least six weeks following elbow surgery and Framber Valdez currently serving a suspension, the Tigers are slated for a bullpen game Sunday.

Right-hander Brenan Hanifee (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.2 IP) is scheduled to get the start in a potential opener role for Detroit, which has a 4.74 ERA over the last five games. He is 1-0 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 career appearances (one start) versus the Royals.

–Field Level Media

The Las Vegas Aces will try to shake off a deflating start to the 2026 season when they visit a Los Angeles Sparks team tipping off its campaign on Sunday.

Reigning WNBA champion Aces (0-1) gave up huge runs in the second and third quarters of their regular-season opener on Saturday against the Phoenix Mercury, resulting in a 99-66 blowout loss.

“I don’t think we’re in good enough shape to play at the level that we need to,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said following the rout. “The defense, it looks like we haven’t worked on it. We’ve been doing it an hour-and-a-half every day in practice.

“The little details that we talk about that are separation factors, we’re not doing them,” she added. “And until we decide we want to do them, we’ll continue to get our butt kicked like this.”

The Aces’ defensive woes to begin the campaign included surrendering 11-of-24 3-point shooting. Las Vegas was among the WNBA’s best 3-point defenses in 2025, holding opponents to 31.6% on the year.

Along with the struggles on defense Saturday, Las Vegas lacked consistent offense around four-time league Most Valuable Player A’ja Wilson. Wilson finished with 19 points while Jackie Young went for 12

Las Vegas looks to bounce back against Los Angeles, which had the WNBA’s most porous defense a season ago. The Sparks allowed 88.2 points per game in 2025 and a league-most 10.1 3-pointers a contest.

The Los Angeles side welcoming the Aces for the Sunday matchup looks a bit different, however, having added veteran forward and 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike.

Kelsey Plum — a key contributor to Las Vegas championships in 2022 and 2023 before signing with the Sparks last year — said to the Los Angeles Times that Ogwumike’s presence is a game-changer for the squad.

“I don’t think that last year I realized how big of a decision I made,” Plum told the Times. “When Nneka signed this year, I was like, ‘OK, I’m not crazy. They’re seeing the vision I am seeing.'”

Ogwumike averaged 18.3 points and seven rebounds per game last season for the Seattle Storm. She joins a frontcourt with another former Aces player, Dearica Hamby, who averaged 18.4 points and 7.9 rebounds an outing in 2025.

The Los Angeles frontcourt also features Cameron Brink, the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2024 and a promising defensive presence whose floor time has been limited due to injuries. Brink has appeared in 34 games combined over her first two WNBA seasons, averaging 6.1 points and 4.8 rebounds.

–Field Level Media

The Phoenix Mercury will jump right from the microwave into the frying pan Sunday night when they complete a season-opening road back-to-back with a visit to the Golden State Valkyries in San Francisco.

One day after the Valkyries traveled north to secure a 91-80 win at Seattle on the WNBA’s Opening Night, the Mercury stunned the Las Vegas Aces 99-66 on the defending champion’s home court.

Golden State and Phoenix will return to the court on Sunday night.

The Valkyries, an expansion team that snuck into the playoffs last year, were in such disarray in the preseason that coach Natalie Nakase scheduled just one preseason game so that she’d have time to reintroduce her players to one another.

Still, the club opened without last year’s top pick, Juste Jocyte, who is completing an obligation to her Spanish League team, and one of last year’s top players, Iliana Rupert, who is pregnant. The Valkyries then lost starting guard Tiffany Hayes to a dislocated pinkie finger and key reserve Cecilia Zandalasini to a concussion.

All four have been ruled out of Sunday’s game, but Nakase, the WNBA’s Coach of the Year last season, expects a better performance than in Seattle.

“My expectations are high for us defensively,” Nakase said after the win, during which last year’s top defensive team statistically allowed 24- and 27-point quarters.

“We just have to be smarter. There’s a lot of corrections that we can make. They know it, too; they know that’s not our best defensive effort.

“But I also believe we’re not even there yet as a team, because some of the players have only come to three or four practices. So I told them, ‘I’m going to give you guys a space to evolve in the next couple of days.'”

Janelle Salaun had 20 points and Veronica Burton added 16 in the win.

While the Valkyries had familiarity in mind as they took the court, the Mercury was more dialed in on the opposition. After all, not only had they lost to the Aces in the 2025 WNBA Finals, but the team then had to endure Las Vegas’ ring ceremony before the nationally-televised affair.

Alyssa Thomas led the way with 20 points, but the Mercury had a secret weapon available for the rematch – Jovana Nogic. The Serbian forward who had been playing in Russia set the tone on the visitors’ ceremony-crashing effort with 19 points — all in the first half.

Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts credited the league’s new higher-paying collective bargaining agreement for attracting a higher level of talent to the WNBA this season.

“This is a player that hasn’t come over, because maybe it wasn’t worth it, right? A lot of these European players,” Tibbetts noted to the media after the win. “(Nogic has) been someone that our front office has talked about the last couple of years. She had an awesome start; I’m really happy for her.”

–Field Level Media