Detroit – Tarik Skubal didn’t want anyone to misinterpret the somber nature of the clubhouse or lose perspective about what’s been going on with this Tigers baseball team.

“We won three out of four,” Skubal reminded everyone after a tough, 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Royals Sunday. “I think the vibe you have in here right now is that we just lost. But look at this series. Winning three our of four is a very positive thing. And we’ve won a lot of series this year. We have to continue doing that and it starts tomorrow against the Padres.”

Contributing to the subdued Easter Sunday vibe, too, was that slugger Kerry Carpenter was pulled from the game in the top of the ninth inning with an apparent right hamstring injury.

“Injuries always suck,” Skubal said. “Hopefully it’s nothing. He’s a big part of our lineup. … Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Let’s pray for the best.”

BOX SCORE: Royals 4, Tigers 2 (10 innings)

MLB SCOREBOARD

Manager AJ Hinch said Carpenter felt something in the hamstring after legging out an infield single in the seventh inning. He would’ve batted third in the bottom of the ninth had he been able to stay in the game.

Carpenter was sent for tests after the game and was not available to comment.

“All losses are tough to swallow,” Hinch said. “This was a winnable game. We put ourselves in position and probably could’ve tacked on and created a little more space. But they did a good job of battling back.”

What stings, too, is that the Tigers contributed to their own demise. The Royals tied the game in the top of the eighth with an unearned run, created by a Javier Baez throwing error. And the Royals won it in the 10th, scoring the free runner without the benefit of a hit.

“You mix up any other sequence of events in the 10th and they don’t score a run,” said reliever Tyler Holton, who set down six straight hitters in two innings and still got charged with the loss. “They did a good job of getting (the free runner) over and hitting something deep enough to get him in.

“I struck out the last guy. Wish I’d struck out one of the first two.”

The free runner was Drew Waters, whom Holton struck out to end the ninth. Waters advanced to third on a groundout to second by Jonathan India and scored on sacrifice fly to left by Bobby Witt Jr.

The loss prevented the Tigers not only from the sweep, but also from getting a little slice of history. A win would have made them the first Tigers team in 83 years to start a season 9-1 at home. Not even the champion 1984 team, with a 35-5 start, did that.

They used a Royals misplay to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh and then returned the favor in the top of the eighth.

Gleyber Torres was on first with one out when first baseman Salvador Perez fielded Carpenter’s ground ball. Both the pitcher, lefty Daniel Lynch, and second baseman Makail Garcia went to cover the base and Perez threw the ball right between them.

It was scored a single and Carpenter, even though he tweaked his hamstring, stayed in the game at that point. Zach McKinstry, whose two-hit RBI single in the fifth tied the game 2-2, was up next. Hinch, with right-handed hitter Andy Ibanez available off his bench, stuck with the lefty-lefty matchup.

“They would’ve brought (righty John) Schreiber in for Ibanez,” Hinch explained. “So the two matchups were a sidearm, nasty righty at 94 mph on Andy or Z-Mac, who has defended himself against a lot of guys. Credit to Z-Mac for giving us the option to hang in there.”

McKinstry, now 7 for 17 against lefties this season, responded with the RBI knock, his third hit of the game.

They missed a chance to expand the lead when Schreiber, the former Tiger and downriver native, got Riley Greene to hit into a 3-2-3 double-play with the bases loaded ending the seventh.

The Tigers gave the lead back in the top of the eighth. With Tommy Kahnle pitching, Baez, playing third base, made an errant throw to first on a ground ball by Witt Jr., a two-base error. One out later, another former Tiger, Mark Canha cashed it in with an RBI single.

The pesky Royals offense made it a short outing for Skubal, too, something they have done to him before. They grind out at-bats, scratch out a few singles and just be a general nuisance. They worked a couple of long innings, pushed his pitch-count up and got him out of the game in five innings. That alone is a win for most teams.

“That’s a good team over there,” Skubal said. “They fouled off a ton of pitches, even good pitches and were able to push some stuff the other way. I gave up seven singles and it seemed like all of them were to the right side. Clearly that was their approach and one through nine they were able to execute it.

“That’s hard to do and they were able to do it.”

At one point, after Waters blooped a second opposite-field single, Skubal had to joke with him.

“I’ll give you one, but not two,” Skubal said, laughing. “And you saw Salvy (Perez) in the dugout. He was laughing, holding up two fingers.”

The Royals pushed across two runs in the second inning, stringing four singles, including a two-strike RBI single by lefty-swinging Vinnie Pasquantino.

It was just the fifth hit and first RBI Skubal has allowed to a left-handed hitter this season.

“They came out with an incredible team approach against him,” Hinch said. “They were conceding one side of the field (the pull side). They were conceding a lot to create some action on the bases. They did a good job of staying on his fastball and his changeup, fighting off pitches while still working everything toward right field.

“Tarik continued to try and disrupt their timing but not a ton was taking them off their plan.”

Skubal still did a lot of Skubal-like things. He pounded the strike zone (18 of 23 first-pitch strikes), got 12 swings and misses (eight with his changeup on 23 swings) and 21 called strikes.

“That team made me make a bunch of good pitches and they were able to put the bat on some mistakes,” Skubal said. “That’s what that team does. They’re really good.”

He was asked, in hindsight, knowing they were going to be committed to an opposite-field attack plan, what he might’ve done differently to counteract it.

“I probably wouldn’t tell you guys,” he said. “Those are conversations I’ve already had. I think you can see with their swings and stuff. I just need to be better at executing pitches when I know that’s what’s going on.”