3 reasons why Thursday's game should concern the KC Royals

James McArthur wasn't sharp again

Will Smith seemed to be Kansas City's closer when the season started. But his early struggles thrust McArthur into the role; the second-year Royal looked well-suited for it when, at the end of April, he'd saved seven games and was 1-0 with a 2.63 ERA.

May was different. McArthur did save four more games, but he also blew three, suffered two losses, and gave up 12 runs (two unearned) in 10 innings.

June has been better, but McArthur still has work to do. He entered Thursday's game with a 3.60 ERA for the month, not an ideal mark for a closer, and flirted too closely with increasing it after relieving Lugo with the game tied, one runner on, and two away in the seventh. Fortunately, the double he yielded to Abraham Toro went for naught when second baseman Adam Frazier took Dairon Blanco's throw from right field and gunned down Kyle McCann at the plate.

Had McCann scored, of course, his run would have been charged to Lugo with no effect on McArthur's ERA. But after McArthur picked Max Schuemann off after walking him to begin the eighth and JJ Bleday grounded out, he walked Miguel Andujar, who moved around to third on Brent Rooker's single. All that spurred a pitching change by manager Matt Quatraro; Ángel Zerpa replaced McArthur and induced a force out to end the threat.

It wasn't a save situation for McArthur. Nevertheless, it turned out to be the kind of shaky performance he needs to avoid if he's going to be the club's closer.

The KC Royals can't afford to lose series to bad clubs

The Royals are good, but not so much so that they can absorb being swept or let poor teams take series from them. That's especially true both now, when they haven't made any necessary moves to improve their obvious weaknesses, and down the stretch when playoff chase pressure increases dramatically and losses suddenly take on more immediate significance.

Kansas City arrived in Oakland after going 5-7 in 12 straight games against first-place teams. Losers of nine straight and looking much like the Athletics who lost 112 games — six more than the Royals, who tied their own franchise single-season record for losses — just a season ago, the A's appeared ripe for a sweep at Kansas City's hands.

But they almost pulled one off of their own. Oakland beat the Royals 7-5 Tuesday night and 5-1 Wednesday evening; the first loss dropped Kansas City out of second place and into third for the first time since May 13. Fortunately, Kansas City sidestepped the sweep Thursday, but the fashion in which they did so wasn't especially convincing.

The Royals still lost the series, though, and that's something they must avoid, or at least significantly minimize, as the season moves into its most critical stages. And barely beating a bad team to escape a sweep should give this club pause.

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