KC Royals: 2 losing skids doomed playoff chances

Just a week into the new season, the KC Royals began the first of two skids that would severely damage their postseason hopes.

After a week of play in the long-delayed 2020 campaign, the KC Royals were 3-4 after beating Detroit to end a seven-game season-opening road trip. It was early even for a short season, and the Royals weren’t in last place—that distinction belonged to the Chicago White Sox.

All that, though, would soon change. The Sox edged the Royals 3-2 to spoil Kansas City’s home opener; the July 31 loss was the first of six straight that would put the Royals at an early, but not insurmountable, disadvantage.

Chicago did all its damage in the second inning when Adam Engell touched KC rookie Kris Bubic for a three-run homer. An infield error and hit batsman seeded the bases for the Engell blast that spoiled Bubic’s major league debut and gave him his first loss.

Salvador Perez was KC’s bright spot. His three singles provided a glimpse of the excellent season he’d enjoy at the plate.

Aug. 1: White Sox 11, Royals 5.  Chicago didn’t let up after dumping Kansas City into the American League basement the night before. In a game that was over almost as soon as it began, the Sox scored four times in the first inning off newcomer Ronald Bolanos and clipped him for another run in the second. It was Bolanos’ second, and last, start of the season.

The Royals couldn’t muster any offense. They left 12 runners on base and hit 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Aug. 2: White Sox 9, Royals 2.  Greg Holland re-established himself as a premier reliever this season, but was just beginning to find his old form when the ChiSox temporarily derailed his comeback bid. Breaking a 2-2 tie in the seventh, they battered Holland for five of the seven runs they’d score that inning. It proved to be Holland’s worst outing of the year; after an oblique issue forced him to the Injured List and ended his season Friday, Holland finished with a 3-0, 1.19 ERA (245 ERA+) record, almost 10 strikeouts per nine innings, and an 0.953 WHIP.

As was becoming a consistent problem, the Royals were only 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Aug. 3: Cubs 2, Royals 0.  A complete lack of run support ruined what was then Danny Duffy’s best start of the season—he struck out six and gave up three hits in six innings, but the two runs he surrendered were two more than the Royals could give him. Alec Mills and Chicago’s bullpen held KC to five hits and limited the club to a 1-for-7 RISP night.

Aug. 4: Cubs 5, Royals 4.  The Royals showed a bit of life the next night by scoring two runs in the top of the ninth but still lost their fifth straight. The Cubs scored four of their five runs on home runs: Brady Singer gave up two and Trevor Rosenthal surrendered one.

Aug. 5: Cubs 6, Royals 1.  The Cubs and Royals moved to Kauffman Stadium to continue their home-and-home series. Cub pitching was too much for Kansas City—the Royals managed just four singles and a double and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

The Royals exploded the next night with a 13-2 victory to avoid a Chicago sweep and end the losing streak at six. But another skid was less than a month away.

The KC Royals’ worst losing streak of the year scuttled their playoff hopes.

As September dawned with a home game against Cleveland, Kansas City was still reeling from three heart-breaking walk-off losses in its last five games. The Royals’ victory over the Indians in the previous evening’s series opener proved to be the slightest of respites.

The Indians struck early and attacked Matt Harvey, making his third start of the season after becoming the latest Royal pitching reclamation project, for five runs on three homers in the first two innings. Harvey lasted only an out into the second and left with a 15.43 ERA (he’d also lose the sixth of the seven-game skid). KC’s only run came on Hunter Dozier’s sixth-inning homer. Cleveland won 10-1.

Sept. 2: Indians 5, Royals 0.  That Kansas City left only one on base and went 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position had nothing to do with efficiency and everything to do with lack of opportunity. Proving yet again they need better bats, the Royals managed only three hits off starter Triston McKenzie and none off the Tribe’s bullpen.

Sept. 3: White Sox 11, Royals 6.  The Royals scored six, but their inability to drive runners in was fatal. They left nine on base and hit 3-for-13 with RISP. Duffy suffered his worst start, giving up six runs and walking five in six innings and the Sox slammed Jake Newberry for five runs in a third of an inning. Nicky Lopez, hitting just .200 coming into the game, drove in three runs.

Sept. 4: White Sox 7, Royals 4. Despite their nine hits, the KC Royals still lost, an understandable result considering all the hits were singles. That fact accounted as much as anything for the 12 runners the Royals left on and their 3-for-11 RISP.

Starter Brady Singer put the club in a hole by giving up five runs on 10 hits before manager Mike Matheny pulled him with two outs in the sixth.

Sept. 5:  White Sox 5, Royals 3.  Kansas City’s downfall came in the fifth inning. James McCann led off by reaching on Maikel Franco’s error; Bubic retired the next two batters but a single and a two-run homer accounted for three unearned runs. The Royals couldn’t overcome the resulting 5-1 lead and lost their fifth in a row.

Sept. 6: White Sox 8, Royals 2.  The White Sox finished their season’s dominance over Kansas City with their ninth win in the teams’ 10 games. Clinging to a slim 2-0 lead, Chicago broke this one open with three runs in the seventh and another three in the eighth. The Royals’ typically reliable bullpen was the culprit: Josh Staumont gave up three runs in just a third of an inning and Chance Adams, pitching in his fourth game of the year, surrendered three runs for the third time.

Notable were the six runners the Royals left on base and their 0-for-7 RISP.

Sept. 7: Indians 5, Royals 2.  Credit Cleveland’s pitching with the last loss in the KC Royals’ longest losing streak of the season. Starter Zach Plesac gave up a run (Adalberto Mondesi’s first home run of the year) in his seven innings and the Tribe bullpen allowed a run in the eighth. The Royals managed nine hits but only two—Mondesi’s homer and Dozier’s first triple—were for extra bases.

The Royals beat the Indians 8-6 the next night to end the streak at seven.

Two unfortunate stretches contributed heavily to the KC Royals’ lost 2020 playoff chances.

The good news, after Kansas City’s victory over Detroit Friday night, is that the Royals can only lose two games in a row before the season ends Sunday. The bad news, of course, is that their two longest losing streaks, the six-game skid that started July 31 and the seven-gamer that began Sept. 1, destroyed any hopes Kansas City had of playing in October. That those streaks occurred in a short season when even inferior teams could legitimately compete for extra playoff spots made them even more distasteful.

The first streak started with the KC Royals just two games out of first and tied for a Wild Card spot; it ended with them 7.5 games behind the league lead and 3.5 behind in the Wild Card. The second streak started on the first day of the campaign’s final month when the club was eight games out of first, but a manageable five games behind in the Wild Card fight.

The last skid finished the Royals off–after the seventh loss, the club found itself 12.5 games out of first and 7.5 behind in the Wild Card with slightly less than three weeks to play.

That Kansas City played badly on the road (11-19) and hasn’t dominated at home (the club was 14-14 at Kauffman Stadium after Friday’s win) certainly contributed to the club’s missed opportunity this season. But losing six in a row and seven straight a month later probably hurt the Royals more.

Some uncharacteristically poor pitching (for 2020), including the worst performances of the year for Duffy and Holland, some shaky starts by Bubic and Singer, and bad outings by Matt Harvey, took its toll. So did the inconsistent offense that’s plagued the Royals all season—they averaged 2.33 runs per game and hit .224 with runners in scoring position during the first streak, then averaged 2.57 runs and had a .195 RISP in the second.

The reasons the club lost itself in two damaging losing streaks, the impact of their length magnified by the short season, are easy to see. The result is hard to take.

Losing streaks are a fact of baseball life. But in this short season, they hurt more than usual.