KC Royals win, but ultimate impact of game remains to be seen

The KC Royals beat Washington 1-0 in 10 innings Tuesday night. The victory, the first since Sept. 21 for a team struggling to accomplish anything meaningful at the plate, was immediately and widely hailed on social media as a drought-breaker.

That it was. The Royals put an end to their painful seven-game losing streak and the one run they scored was their first in 27 innings. Welcome relief, to be sure, for the club and its legion of fans hungry for their first taste of postseason play since the 2015 World Series title season.

Let us not, however, assume anything from the victory. A win is a win, but there is too much work left for these Royals for anyone to take anything for granted.

And that's especially true when it comes to mounting an MLB Playoffs-worthy offense. How Kansas City won Tuesday evening proves that point.

The Royals nudged Washington aside by the smallest of possible margins not because they displayed a particularly potent offense — they didn't — but instead because the Nationals committed a damaging error at the worst possible time. and Kansas City's pitchers were stellar.

It happened this way.

Why the KC Royals won Tuesday night's game

Kyle Isbel, who began the 10th in scoring position only because he was the automatic extra-innings runner, was at second with one out when Bobby Witt Jr., who always seems to figure in game-changing moments, hit an infield grounder that shortstop Nasim Nuñez surely wishes now he'd pocketed then.

In a too-desperate effort to nip the fleet Witt at first, the Washington rookie fired off a bad throw that Juan Yepez couldn't handle, and Isbel shot around third and headed to the plate with the only run his club had scored in far too long. Nuñez was charged with an error on the throw he simply shouldn't have made.

And there's even more evidence that this game, the first of six Kansas City will play to conclude the regular season, may not prove to be the breakout affair some jumped to bill it as. It bore many of the earmarks of those recent losses in which the Royals' run production was non-existent or too meager to matter.

Yes, the Royals had eight hits, the most they've managed to scrape together since getting 11 in a losing effort against Detroit nine days ago, but they were all singles, with not even one extra-base hit in the bunch.

They left 11 runners on base. And went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Only one Royal — Witt, not surprisingly — had more than one hit, and Yuli Gurriel, MJ Melendez, Freddy Fermin, Dairon Blanco, and Maikel Garcia didn't have any.

No, the offense didn't win this game: Nuñez's ill-advised throw and Kansas City's lights-out pitching did. Starter Cole Ragans, a good choice to start a game with big playoff implications, struck out six in six innings while Kris Bubic, Sam Long, Ángel Zerpa (who earned the win) and Lucas Erceg (who saved his eighth game since becoming a Royal via a trade deadline deal with Oakland) each threw a scoreless inning to preserve the Royals' 83rd win of this remarkable turnaround season.

What might Kansas City's win mean?

Will the victory be the breakout win Kansas City so desperately needs? It better be. The hot Tigers won again Tuesday to stay tied with the Royals for the second and third American League Wild Card spots, but the footsteps are still loud behind the two teams. Although Minnesota lost its third straight game Tuesday, this time to lowly Miami, the Twins are only two games behind Detroit and Kansas City. The Mariners trail Minnesota by a half-game, and Boston is another game back. Tampa Bay, five games out with that many left to play, is in the race only mathematically.

So Kansas City must hope that Tuesday in Washington was truly the end of the club's offensive ills. The Royals won't have long to wait for signs one way or the other — they and the Nationals play the second of their three-game series beginning at 5:45 p.m. CDT tonight at Nationals Park. Michael Lorenzen is scheduled to be back from the Injured List to start for the Royals.

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