How the KC Royals managed to lose 19 straight games

It was July 26, and 2005 had already been cruel to the KC Royals. The club was trapped in a season already lost, mired almost 30 games behind American League Central-leading Chicago, their opponent for that night’s game, and stood a miserable 27 games below .500.

But thanks to an uncharacteristic six-run sixth inning, the Royals won easily and then beat the Sox in 13 innings the next night to head into a seven-game road trip on a nice note.

Lying ahead, though, was a ghastly 19-game stretch that is, to this day, the longest losing streak in club history.

How did such a thing happen?

The KC Royals start their road trip badly against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Royals opened the trip in Tampa against the Devil Rays and were coasting after just two innings. Mike Sweeney’s two-run first-frame double, followed by David DeJesus’ RBI double and Chip Ambres’ two-run homer in the second staked KC starter Kyle Snider to a comfortable 5-1 lead.

But Snyder buckled and gave up five runs on six hits in the fifth. KC couldn’t recover and lost 10-5.

Kansas City starter D.J. Carrasco pitched five scoreless innings the next night; the trouble was that he gave the Rays four runs in the first, all they needed to win 6-3. The Royals waited until the eighth to score all their runs.

A Saturday night game followed and the Royals again until late to score. Their three seventh-inning runs meant nothing because of the unhospitable way Tampa and future Royal Jonny Gomes treated KC starter Zack Greinke—they clipped him for five runs, Gomes touched him for one of his two homers on the night, and the Rays won 7-3.

Tampa swept the series the next day. Once again, the Royals didn’t score until it was too late—their two runs in the eighth weren’t enough to overcome the six Tampa had already scored, including three on the six hits and five walks starter Jose Lima gave them in the first five frames. Their hosts sent KC off to Boston with a 6-2 beating.

A Boston slugger makes life miserable for the KC Royals at Fenway Park.

Kansas City looked good early in the first of three games at Fenway Park Aug. 2. Matt Stairs hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Ambres led off the third with a solo shot to give the Royals a 4-0 lead.

The Sox, however, got to KC starter Runelvys Hernández in the fourth. He walked Edgar Rentería and David Ortiz to start the frame before Manny Ramírez hammered a homer to center to slice the Royal lead to one.

Things were quiet until Ambiorix Burgos took over for Hernández to start the seventh and gave Boston three runs; the Sox led 6-4 and that was that.

Ramírez punished the Royals again the next night, but didn’t wait as long to do it, instead clubbing another three-run homer to score Rentería and Ortiz in the first.

Kansas City came right back to score two in the second when Emil Brown homered, took the lead in the fourth on a solo Sweeney home run and Ángel Berroa’s single. The lead was short-lived, though: Boston retook the lead with two in its half of the inning, then plated two in the fifth and one in the seventh to win 8-5.

The clubs closed out their three-game set the next afternoon, and it appeared early on that the Royals were ending their six-game losing skid. Sparked by a four-run third highlighted by Terrence Long’s two-out three-run double, they led 5-1.

But Boston had no intention of relieving Kansas City of its misery. Jason Varitek blasted a two-out grand slam off reliever Juan Carlos Oviedo to an eight-run fourth and the Sox went on to win 11-9.

The 0-7 road trip was over. It was time to go home.

Near the end of a road trip that started badly, the Royals end the streak.

Hernández’s struggles during the losing streak continued as soon as Kansas City arrived in Seattle to begin its road trip. The Mariners, at 50-66 somewhat hapless but still better than the 38-79 Royals, scorched Hernandez for six runs before Buddy Bell pulled him after six innings. The bullpen allowed five more runs and Seattle won 11-3.

Now losers of 80 games, the Royals had hope the next night after taking a 2-0 lead in the first. But Greinke gave up run-scoring singles to future Royal Raúl Ibañez and Adrian Beltre in the second and another run in the third, Affeldt surrendered one in the eighth, and KC lost 4-3.

The Royals made some noise in the series finale the next afternoon, but the single run they scored in the sixth, and the four they collected in the ninth on Paul Phillips’ grand slam—one of only three homers he managed in a seven-season career—weren’t nearly enough. The M’s won 11-5.

The Royals lose the first of three in Oakland, then put the streak to rest.

Once again, a day off did nothing for Kansas City when they opened the second and final leg of their road trip in Oakland. Five pitchers combined to shut out the Royals 4-0; the A’s scored all their runs off Lima, who lost his 12th game of the year. The streak stood at 19.

The next night, the Royals found themselves on the verge of their 20th straight loss after falling behind after three innings. But they grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Brown’s double and Stairs’ run-scoring grounder to first.

This time, there would be no blown lead. Kansas City starter Wood left after five frames and Sisco, Burgos, Affeldt and MacDougal, all of whom struggled during the streak, held the A’s scoreless the rest of the way. KC won 2-1 and, 23 days after it started at home, the Royals’ terrible losing streak ended on the road.

The club went 4-6 the rest of August, then 12-17 in September and 1-1 in October to complete the worst season in team history at 56-106. The Royals finished last in the AL Central, 43 full games behind division champ Chicago and 15 behind fourth place Detroit. General Manager Allard Baird survived the season, but was replaced by Dayton Moore in early 2006; Buddy Bell managed the club through the 2007 campaign.

The Royals lost 19 straight games in 2005. They and their fans hope never to see such a debacle again.