(Sports Network) - Reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Zach Greinke aims for double-digit wins for the third straight season tonight when the Kansas City Royals travel to Comerica Park to open a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers.
The 2002 draft pick, who was honored after going 16-8 with a 2.16 earned run average in 33 starts last season, picked up his ninth victory in start No. 30 of 2010 with an 11-3 win over Oakland on Sept. 14.
He was a 13-game winner in 2008 after having won 21 games in his initial 112 major-league appearances.
Greinke pitched 6 1/3 innings of four-run ball against the Tigers on Sept. 3 in a 9-5 Royals loss and is 11-5 against them in 24 career games, including 21 starts.
For Detroit, second-year righty Rick Porcello is also targeting double-digit victories.
The 21-year-old won 14 times in 31 starts as a rookie in 2009, but had to string together wins in his last four starts to get to 9-11 this season.
He allowed four hits and three runs over eight innings while getting a 6-3 decision over the Chicago White Sox in his last start on Sept. 9.
One start earlier, Porcello downed the Royals, 6-4, with seven innings of seven-hit, four-run ball. He also defeated them on Aug. 24 with seven innings of scoreless two-hit ball.
In six career starts against Kansas City, he is 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA in 38 innings.
On Sunday in Kansas City, Yuniesky Betancourt stole home to cap off a four-run second inning and put the Royals in front for good as Kansas City salvaged a game in a three-game series with a 6-4 win over Cleveland.
Kila Ka'aihue and Mitch Maier each drove in a pair of runs for the Royals, who have won three of five. Billy Butler added two hits in the win.
Luke Hochevar (6-5) earned the win after allowing three runs, eight hits and a walk in six innings, and Joakim Soria locked down his 39th save with a perfect ninth inning.
In Chicago, Gerald Laird singled in the go-ahead run in the 11th inning and the Tigers overcame a collapse in the ninth and a bases-loaded jam in the final Chicago at-bat to win, 9-7, handing the White Sox their sixth straight loss.
Laird also had an RBI double during a six-run seventh inning for the Tigers, who gave up four runs in the ninth to send the game into extra frames.
Casper Wells and Scott Sizemore homered for the Tigers, who swept the three- game series, and have won six in a row and eight of the last nine meetings.
The Tigers have won eight of 15 over the Royals this year, splitting the six meetings so far in Detroit.