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.

Returning home to Kauffman Stadium made no difference for the KC Royals.

A three-run lead after five innings against a team seriously contending for a division title is usually encouraging, but the Royals were becoming accustomed to blowing leads after watching them disappear in five of their seven road losses. And the 4-1 advantage they held over the Athletics, who arrived in Kansas City just a game out of first place in the American League West, was about to crumble.

Starter Zack Greinke let Oakland back in the game in the sixth by surrendering a two-run homer to Dan Johnson. Then, in the eighth, reliever Jeremy Affeldt walked the bases loaded with one out and Burgos, who’d blown a lead in Boston just three days before, allowed a run on a single and another on a wild pitch, giving the A’s the 5-4 lead they never relinquished.

There was no lead for the Royals to lose the next night, however. Oakland led 16-0 before Kansas City scored its only run in the eighth; KC starter Lima was charged with seven runs, reliever Jimmy Gobble with eight.

The next day’s finale was more of the same. The A’s led 8-0 after three, the Royals never scored, and Oakland won 11-0. Hernández, who the Red Sox battered so badly the week before, gave Oakland four runs in the first and three in the second.

After Oakland left town, Cleveland came into The K and swept the KC Royals.

Two nights later, a day off and new opponent seemed to be doing the trick for Kansas City after eight innings of the club’s first game with Cleveland—the Royals led 7-1 with three outs to go and closer Mike MacDougal coming in.

What happened then was nothing less than a bloodletting.

MacDougal, owner of 15 saves, gave up four doubles, two singles and five runs before Manager Buddy Bell summoned Gobble with two outs to protect a six-run lead cut to one. But he allowed five more runs, including three a Jhonny Peralta homer, and the Indians walked away with an easy 13-7 win.

The Royals, perhaps still shellshocked by that humiliating self-destruction, went quietly the next night. Behind 4-0 after two, they managed just one run. Cleveland scored all but two of its runs off Greinke and won 6-1.

The streak, now 12, appeared in danger in the next evening’s finale when Kansas City took a 2-0 lead in the second on singles by Ambres and DeJesus. But the Indians weren’t about to see the Royals’ ugly skid end on their watch. KC starter Carrasco surrendered a seventh-inning grand slam to Jeff Liefer—the only home run he’d hit that season and the last of his big league career—and Kansas City lost 4-2.

Detroit offered no relief to the KC Royals. The miserable homestand ended.

Just as one day off separating the Oakland and Cleveland series and a change in opponents didn’t alter the Royals’ bad fortunes, two days of rain that washed out Friday and Saturday contests with Detroit didn’t impact their losing streak. The Tigers swept both ends of a Sunday doubleheader to push that streak to 15 straight.

The Tigers broke a 7-7 tie in the ninth inning of the first game when future Royal Omar Infante doubled off Burgos with two outs. Fernando Rodney closed out the Royals to ruin their 12-hit attack and three-hit games by DeJesus and Berroa. Detroit scored six of their seven runs off KC starter Mike Wood.

Kansas City pitching wasn’t as shaky in the nightcap, but Detroit’s was flawless—Mike Maroth and Rodney shut out the Royals 1-0, rendering Lima’s complete game for naught.

The disastrous homestand over, the club left for a six-game swing to Seattle and Oakland.