AL Wild Card Standings: Royals' October hopes dwindling after devastating series loss

After getting fans' hopes up after a pulling off a comeback win on Wednesday, the Kansas City Royals could not manage to rise to the occasion again on Thursday, dropping a seemingly "must-win" game to lose the four-game series to their AL Wild Card rivals in the Cleveland Guardians three games to one.

The offense showed it's flaws, scoring just eight runs over four games leaving their pitching staff with no margins for error - which unfortunately the likes of Noah Cameron and John Schreiber suffered first-hand this week.

The Royals' postseason hopes now seem to be more far-fetched than ever, with three even tougher postseason contenders due up in their next three series.

Royals fall to dangerous territory in Wild Card Race after latest series loss

If Thursday night's 3-2 collapse to a direct Wild Card rival wasn't painful enough, the rest of the league did Kansas City no favors on Thursday.

The team everyone outside of the current AL postseason positions are chasing has been the Seattle Mariners. But that "team" has now turned into "teams". While the field was chasing the Mariners, the Mariners had bigger fish to fry as they had their sights on their division and successfully moved into a tie for the AL West lead with the Houston Astros following a dramatic win in an extra-innings back-and-forth affair with the Los Angeles Angels.

Then of course, after swiftly sweeping the league's best Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, the Texas Rangers were able to sit idle on Thursday and add a half game to their lead over the Royals with KC's loss.

As it stands right now, the Royals have gone from being just 1.0 game back of the Mariners for the final Wild Card spot going into this past Sunday's series finale with the Twins, to now sitting 5.0 games back of now both the Mariners and Astros for that elusive final spot in October.

And between them sits a now 3.0 game gap over the Rangers and a 1.5 game gap between them and the Guardians.

With the Royals window all but slamming shut on them at the moment, there is no more time for missteps if they want any chance of re-routing their rapidly decreasing postseason odds - which dropped from down to 1.6% as of Friday morning according to FanGraphs.

That will be easier said than done though. Before the Royals face a formidable pair of opponents in the aforementioned surging Mariners and the AL best Toronto Blue Jays next week, they must first square off on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend. Despite being shorthanded, this Phillies team is freshly off dismantling their "closest" rival in the NL East in the Mets with a series sweep.

While 1.6% postseason odds may not warrant scoreboard watching anymore, considering a miracle is mathematically still possible, let's take a gander at what the Royals direct rivals have in store this weekend.

The Mariners have the final three games of their four-game home set with the 69-win Angels. The Astros are on the road to face the 65-win Atlanta Braves. The Rangers head to Queens for a three-game series with the Mets. Finally, the Guardians take their momentum from a series win against the Royals into a three-game home set against the AL worst Chicago White Sox.

This is certainly not the weekend of dreams for a Royals team looking to achieve the impossible.