Keider Montero had a bad beginning.

Montero, a rookie right-hander making his eighth appearance for the Detroit Tigers, allowed three runs to the Kansas City Royals before recording his first out in the first inning, but he responded by not giving up another run until the seventh.

It was an impressive finish.

The Tigers, though, lost 7-1 to the Royals on Thursday in the first of four games in the series at Comerica Park. After Montero gave up four runs, right-handed reliever Brenan Hanifee surrendered back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning.

"He's fearless," manager A.J. Hinch said of Montero. "He expects a lot out of himself, and I like that. ... To his credit, he didn't fold, so what it tells me about him is he's a tough kid who loves to compete. He is a learner, and he'll take some positives out of this. He'll also take some things he needs to work on."

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Vinnie Pasquantino, the Royals first baseman hitting .265 with 14 home runs, finished 2-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs. He hit a homer off Montero and Hanifee.

The Tigers (52-58) have lost seven of nine games.

The first inning was a disaster, as the first three batters reached safely: Maikel Garcia (single), Bobby Witt Jr. (walk) and Pasquantino (three-run home run). Pasquantino cranked Montero's low first-pitch slider, giving the Royals a 3-0 lead.

"That's part of the adjustments we made, attacking with the fastball and also knowing that they were sitting on the slider," Montero said in Spanish, interpreted by team employee Carlos Guillén. "We tried to get them with the offspeed. We used the changeup and the fastball to get them off balance because I know they were looking for the slider."

After that, Montero retired 18 of the next 20 batters before Michael Massey's one-out double in the seventh inning. Massey scored from second base on Freddy Fermin's RBI single, making it 4-1.

Montero then retired the next two batters with groundouts to complete his outing. He allowed four runs on six hits and one walk with three strikeouts across seven innings, throwing 88 pitches.

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He generated just three whiffs on 44 swings.

Montero has a 6.18 ERA in eight games (seven starts) in 2024.

"We know how aggressive they are," Montero said. "Part of the plan that we had, and the adjustments we made, was mixing the pitches as much as we could to get them off balance, just to get themselves to make outs."

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The lone run

Right-hander Seth Lugo shoved for the Royals.

He allowed one run on four hits and one walk with three strikeouts across eight innings, throwing 103 pitches.

"He doesn't really throw the same pitch twice," Hinch said. "He will feast off some young approaches. I thought we got a little bit exuberant with our overall attack on him. He's tough, and he can do that to a lot of different lineups."

The Tigers scored their lone run in the fourth inning, when Colt Keith and Wenceel Pérez delivered back-to-back singles. Although Justyn-Henry Malloy grounded into a force out, Bligh Madris delivered with a sacrifice fly, cutting the deficit to 3-1.

In total, the Tigers were limited to four hits.

"He knows how to pitch," Pérez said of Lugo. "He knows where he throws. He mixes his pitches very well. I think he tries to make you chase and tries to get you out of balance. That's what I think he tried to do. ... You have to be really focused on the pitches that you're going to swing at."

Bobby Witt Jr.'s big swings

The Royals teed off on Hanifee in the eighth inning.

With one out, Witt Jr. and Pasquantino blasted back-to-back home runs for a 6-1 advantage.

"He's an incredible player," Hinch said of Witt. "He's the face of baseball moving forward, or at least part of the face along with a lot of other good players, and I don't say that lightly. ... This is the big leagues. You should expect guys to have quality players like that, or teams to have those guys. He looks pretty locked in."

Witt tagged a 95.5 mph sinker with a 110.7 mph exit velocity for his 20th homer this season; Pasquantino clubbed an 89.7 mph sinker with a 105.6 mph exit velocity.

The homer from Witt extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

The Royals extended their lead to 7-1 in the ninth inning, when Witt ripped an RBI double off left-handed reliever Sean Guenther. His 31st double scored Kyle Isbel from first base.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers thumped early by Kansas City Royals, 7-1