On Aug. 27, the Kansas City Royals were tied for first place in the AL East with the Guardians. Since then, they have suffered through two seven-game losing streaks and ultimately fell out of contention for the divisional title. Cleveland has already won the division, and the Royals are 7.5 games back.
The latest losing streak ended Wednesday with a 1-0, 10-inning victory over the Nationals. With their run in the tenth inning, the Royals ended a 27-inning scoreless streak. In fact, the Royals suffered a six-game stretch where they scored just five runs.
While the offense has swooned recently, the pitching has been terrific. Their pitching staff has an intact franchise record of 26 scoreless innings going into the series finale with the Nationals. Their excellence has kept the Royals in the wild-card race. Over the last 18 games, the pitching staff has allowed more than four runs just three times and given up two or fewer runs 10 times. They are only 9-9 in those games.
In those 18 games, their pitching staff ranks sixth in ERA (2.64) and fourth in strikeouts per nine innings (10.14), per Statmuse. On the other hand, they rank 21st in batting average (.222), 23rd in home runs (11), and 22nd in runs scored (57). Not many of those nine wins were due to the hitting.
Despite the September skid by the offense, the Royals still hold a slim two-game cushion for a wild-card berth with four games to play, thanks not only to their pitching but because the Twins have crashed just as hard as Kansas City has.
Amazingly, the Royals’ two historic streaks of inept offense and superb pitching overlapped during their four most recent games. Kansas City is fortunate to have won two of those games to keep their postseason dreams alive.
The Royals have one game left with the Nationals, and then they travel to Atlanta to face the Braves, who are also fighting for a playoff spot. Teams want to play meaningful games until the end, and this season-ending final series qualifies. It should be an entertaining weekend with Royals fans sitting on pins and needles until they secure that elusive playoff berth.
