Kansas City Royals first baseman Mike Sweeney rubs the head of team trainer Nick Swartz after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning against the Detroit Tigers. The Royals couldn't protect an early lead, suffering a 7-5 loss Saturday at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

Kansas City, Mo. ? While winning a wild ballgame, Detroit may have lost a valuable pitcher before he could even get onto the field.

Joel Zumaya, whose fastball can exceed 100 mph, was warming up in the bullpen during Saturday night’s 7-5 victory over Kansas City when he “felt something pop” in the middle knuckle of his pitching hand. He was hurried to the hospital and later put on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right finger.

“He threw a pitch in the bullpen, a fastball, and this joint, this (middle) knuckle, he felt something pop,” said manager Jim Leyland. “He’s being checked out at the hospital. That’s all the information I have for you at this time.”

A key member of the bullpen, Zumaya is 1-1 with a 3.63 earned-run average in 171â3 innings for the defending AL champions.

“I don’t want to make any comments yet because I don’t want to be premature,” Leyland said. “But I can tell you this, if it is a situation where we’ve lost Joel for a period of time, then that tests the character of your team and other guys have to step up. I’m assuming he’s going to be out for a while. I would guess. But I just don’t know.”

Craig Monroe hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth to lift the Tigers to their sixth straight victory.

Magglio Ordonez, who homered in the sixth for Detroit, doubled home the tying run off Joaquim Soria in the eighth.

Placido Polanco singled off Brandon Duckworth (0-2) with one out and then went all the way to third when Duckworth’s wild pitch bounced so crazily off the backstop first baseman Ross Gload had to retrieve it. Duckworth wound up on the ground but apparently was not hurt.

After Marcus Thames walked, Ordonez doubled to tie the score at 5. Carlos Guillen was intentionally walked to load the bases before Monroe singled to center.

In the eighth and ninth, Royals’ right fielder Mark Teahen tied an American League record with two outfield assists to the plate. He made a strong throw to home to get Carlos Guillen trying to score on a fly ball out in the eighth.

Teahen, Bell said, “is running his routes a lot better.”

“Really, he’s only had one full month in the outfield,” he said.

Then he ended the ninth by throwing out Ivan Rodriguez, who tried to score off Sean Casey’s single.

In the sixth, Teahen, who converted to the outfield from this base this year, threw out Marcus Thames trying to stretch a double into a triple. The three outfield assists tied the Royals’ record set in their expansion year in 1969.

The Royals took a 4-1 lead off Mike Maroth on home runs by Mike Sweeney, Esteban German and Jason LaRue. But the bullpen frittered away the lead and Jose Mesa (1-1), the fourth Tigers pitcher, got one out for the win.

Todd Jones pitched the ninth for his league-leading 12th save in 14 opportunities.

“Duckworth caught his spike,” said Royals manager Buddy Bell. “The walk to Thamas was the biggest at-bat of the eighth inning.”

It was tied 4-all in the sixth when Tony Pena Jr. singled and scored the go-ahead run when Maroth, Jason Grilli and Wilfredo Ledezma issued walks to successive batters. Ledezma then got Sweeney to line out to left to end the inning.

Maroth had his poorest outing of the year, giving up seven hits and five runs in 52â3 innings. He walked four and had no strikeouts.

Royals starter Odalis Perez did not give up a hit until Carlos Guillen’s RBI single into right-center with two out in the fourth scored Thames, who had reached with a walk. Perez gave up four runs, seven hits and two walks in six innings.