DETROIT ? After two rough starts in a row, Paul Byrd found the perfect antidote for his slump an outing against the Detroit Tigers.

Byrd pitched a four-hitter for his AL-leading seventh complete game and Mike Sweeney had two RBIs, helping the Kansas City Royals beat Detroit, 5-1, Saturday.

“The Tigers don’t walk much they just swing away,” said Byrd, who has three complete games against the Tigers this season. “I know they are going to come out swinging, so if I make my pitches, it can go pretty well.”

In Byrd’s previous two starts, he allowed 16 runs in nine innings to Oakland and Chicago.

“My last two starts were the worst back-to-back starts of my career,” he said. “But I got a pep talk from my wife and my parents drove in to see the game today, which was really nice. They hit some balls at guys and we got some early runs. That helped a lot.”

The win was just Kansas City’s second in 12 games, while the Tigers fall to 3-10 in September. The Royals increased their lead over Detroit to four games in the race to avoid the AL Central cellar.

“Every time Paul pitches, we know we’ve got a great chance to win,” Kansas City manager Tony Pena said. “We got him a five-run lead and he just took over. You can’t ask for a better job than he did.”

Byrd (16-11) beat the Tigers for the third time in four decisions this year, improving his career mark to 4-1. He walked one and struck out seven.

Andy Van Hekken (1-1) took his first career loss, allowing three runs, six hits and two walks in just 123 innings. Van Hekken, making his third career start, left because of a bruised left hand, but is not expected to miss his next outing.

“I was all over the place I just never got on the right track,” Van Hekken said. “I just never had any command today, right from the first batter.”

The Royals led 3-0 after two innings, but could have had more, leaving the bases loaded in both innings.

Michael Tucker led off the game with a walk, took third on Carlos Beltran’s single and scored on Sweeney’s infield single. Kit Pellow later walked to load the bases with one out, but Van Hekken got out of the inning.

The Royals scored twice with two outs in the second on RBI hits by Beltran and Sweeney. Joe Randa followed with a grounder off Van Hekken’s hand, forcing him out of the game.

“He’s got a big bruise on his hand, so we wanted to get him out of there,” Tigers manager Luis Pujols said. “I was close to taking him out anyway. I’ve seen him a lot better than today, but I don’t think I’ve seen him worse.”

Detroit broke the shutout in the sixth on Ramon Santiago’s RBI groundout, but Byrd retired 12 of the game’s final 13 batters.