Lucas Erceg's questionable form continues as KC Royals drop back-to-back games

The Kansas City Royals went from living on cloud nine to wondering if it was all just a dream in the span of two days.

After winning four straight heading into Saturday's second game of a weekend series against the San Diego Padres, the Royals now find themselves losers of consecutive games, after their latest 3-2 walk-off heartbreaker on Sunday afternoon.

There's plenty of reasons as to why the Royals find themselves in a bit of a hole once again, after somewhat climbing their way out of the massive chasm they dug for themselves last week during their six-game losing skid.

And while the focus might be on the offense underwhelming once again, there is a potentially greater issue at hand with one of their previously more reliable roster pieces.

Lucas Erceg has gone from being one of the league’s most trustworthy relievers, to quickly looking more and more like a liability in just the span of a few weeks. And his latest debacle on Sunday afternoon only added to that narrative.

Lucas Erceg's questionable form continues since returning from IL

There's no denying that just leading up to his IL stint and immediately after his return, Erceg has not looked nearly the dominant reliever that Royals fans had become accustomed to seeing since acquiring him nearly a year ago.

While his appearance on May 24 just before his trip to the shelf went relatively smoothly surrendering just a hit and no earned runs in an inning of work, the two appearances before were abnormally poor.

On May 21 in San Francisco, he surrendered two earned runs off two hits and a walk in an inning of work. Then on May 23 against the Twins, it was once again another two earned run and two-hit outing.

In that span his ERA had ballooned from an otherworldly 0.44 clip to a 2.05 mark and his WHIP from a 0.53 up 20 points to a 0.73.

Now, while the injury to his back might have been an explanation as to why he struggled immediately before hitting the shelf, the struggles since don't offer the same clear inference.

After returning on June 12, it was again another unclean outing for the righty, with two hits and one unearned run in an inning.

Then, after a pair of solid enough outings on June 15 against the Athletics (1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER) and June 18 against the Texas Rangers (1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER), he suffered quite the blow up against the Padres on Friday. After getting his ERA back down to 1.71, up to a season high 2.30 after getting shelled for two earned runs off three hits and a walk in an inning of work.

Then look at his work in Sunday's game, as while he may not have been tabbed for any of the runs that came across the board - and technically pitched a solid eighth inning on paper - when you read between the lines, it was a less-than-ideal outing.

He'd come on to face the pinch hitter in Jose Iglesias after both Lugo and Angel Zerpa loaded the bases in the seventh, and after going up 0-2 in the count, would serve a 97 mph meatball down the heart of the plate. Iglesias did what most major league hitters would do and promptly deposited that pitch into right field to cash two and tie the game.

Then come the eighth, after issuing at one out walk to Fernando Tatis Jr., it would take a highlight reel home run robbery from Jac Caglianone to ensure that Erceg was not on the hook for the loss.

While his season numbers of a low-2.00 ERA and 1.01 WHIP paint a picture of a reliever that is thriving, his recent outings have certainly not been representative of that.

This was once the ultimate go-to guy that the Royals could use in any situation to get out of a jam.

This was also the same guy who was arguably robbed other deserving closing role at the beginning of the season after Carlos Estevez was acquired.

Now, he looks far from that, throwing to an 8.10 ERA, 2.40 WHIP and .419 BAA when he entered play on Sunday.

After dropping further below .500, the Royals will need all the help they can get across the board. While Estevez might still be anchoring this bullpen, their relief corps looks undoubtedly weaker when they no longer have that reliable 1-2 punch in the backend and have to rely on the fairly successful but largely unproven middle relief entities to pick up the slack.