KC Royals somehow surpass AL Central rival in ESPN power rankings despite struggles

This week has been a week to forget so far for the Kansas City Royals. They entered it coming off an embarrassing series loss to the American League worst Chicago White Sox and then promptly managed to get swept for the first time since mid-april in an ALDS rematch against the New York Yankees.

The Royals were outscored 17-5 this past series, two of their most trusted starting arms experienced abnormal blowups and arguably their most reliable bullpen arm was on the hook for their loss on Thursday night.

Thankfully last night's loss didn't play a factor in ESPN's latest weekly power rankings, where somehow the then .500 Royals managed to not only stand pat in their ranking from last week, but actually surpass one of the three AL Central rivals ahead of them in the standings, after the Cleveland Guardians suffered a drop.

KC Royals move ahead of Cleveland Guardians in latest ESPN power rankings

How Kansas City managed to not fall in ESPN's Week 11 power rankings is a bit of a mystery, because if you've watched them this week against New York, they've looked as hopeless as they have in some time.

Hopelessness aside though, at the root of everything they really didn't do anything differently then they've done in recent weeks.

ESPN's main criticisms with the Royals this week stemmed from Noah Cameron's first bad outing of his big league career. However, they seemed willing to give the rookie the benefit of the doubt until he provides more than just one bad outing to determine if it was simply a strong start and nothing more.

“The 25-year-old lefty has been a nice surprise,” ESPN’s David Schoenfield wrote. “A seventh-round pick in 2021 out of Central Arkansas who only sits at 92 mph with his fastball but relies on a five-pitch mix.”

“The strikeout rate is low," he added. "So we'll see if this last outing was a blip or the league making some adjustments."

Despite the Royals dropping their eighth series of their last 10 at the time this power ranking went out, it was the Guardians who fell out of the top half from 14 down to 18.

The main point of argument here was the fact that this was Cleveland's third consecutive series loss - Kansas City only has two straight dropped series - and the fact that the offense has looked extremely underwhelming.

Schoenfield wrote that Tuesday's 1-0 loss to Cincinnati was representative of Cleveland's offensive concerns.

“That was also the ninth game in a row where the Guardians failed to score more than four runs as they hit just .215 with a .289 OBP in that stretch,” he wrote.

He also went on to single out a key young force in this Guardians lineup who's underperformed in recent weeks.

“Kyle Manzardo’s slump has been a key reason for the offensive woes as he hit .164 with one home run and four RBIs over 19 games before his two-hit, two-RBI outing Wednesday that included a double,” Schoenfield added.

Well Kansas City may have won the battle in this week's power rankings, the Cleveland is still winning the overall war in the standings, as going into the weekend they remain a full two games ahead of the Royals for third spot in the division, and still sit just half a game behind both the Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays for a Wild Card spot.

Perhaps a three-game weekend home slate against the lowly 26-44 Athletics will be just what the Royals need to not only usurp the Guardians in the power rankings but in the overall standings as well, given Cleveland has a bit of a tougher opponent this weekend, as they head to Seattle to take on the 33-34 Mariners.