Detroit ? The Kansas City Royals are heading into a big series with Cleveland on a sour note.

Joakim Soria allowed Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, and the Royals lost, 4-2, to Detroit on Sunday. Kansas City is now eight games behind the AL Central-leading Indians, whom the Royals will host in a three-game series starting tonight.

The defending World Series champions lost two of three at Detroit. After Tyler Collins hit a leadoff single, Saltalamacchia won it with a homer off Soria (3-4) that easily cleared the wall in right.

“That was an inside fastball, right where I wanted it, but he’s a professional baseball player, too, and he hit it hard,” Soria said. “You don’t want to lose, but I made the pitch I wanted and he hit it. Nothing you can do about that.”

Those were the only two RBIs of the day for Detroit, which scored its first two runs on a balk and a wild pitch.

Francisco Rodriguez (1-0) pitched a perfect top of the ninth for the win.

Detroit rookie Michael Fulmer allowed two runs and six hits in eight innings. Kansas City starter Yordano Ventura allowed two runs and eight hits in seven innings.

The Royals led 2-0 when Detroit began chipping away in the third. With the bases loaded and one out, Ventura struck out Miguel Cabrera, but with Victor Martinez up, the Kansas City right-hander was called for a balk, allowing a run to score.

“There was nothing close to a balk on that play,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “They told us that it was a non-stop issue, but he stopped for more than a second, so I don’t know what threw them off. We should have been up 2-1 in the ninth with Wade (Davis) on the mound.”

Ventura struck out Martinez to end the third, but with two outs in the sixth, he gave up a drive to the gap in right-center by Nick Castellanos that became a triple when the Royals had issues getting the ball back in. Castellanos came home on a wild pitch.

Kansas City opened the scoring in the second on an RBI double by Cheslor Cuthbert, and Eric Hosmer added a run-scoring single in the third.