This KC Royals rotation is other-worldly when the bottom-half is untouchable

Through this incredible winning stretch 16-2 winning stretch in their last 18 games, the Kansas City Royals have seen contributions from the entire roster. Their offense has started to come alive, their bullpen has been top-tier and their rotation has been borderline untouchable.

But even when the Royals were at their lowest, their strongest entity was always the starting staff.

The usual suspects at the top half - ace Cole Ragans, fellow All-Star Seth Lugo and rock-solid veteran Michael Wacha - are all performing as expected and have undoubtedly played a huge role in this team's success.

However, what's really made this staff a top entity in all of baseball is the types of groundbreaking performances they're getting out of the fourth and fifth men in this rotation in Kris Bubic and Michael Lorenzen.

And on Friday night, another shutout start from Lorenzen further drove this point home, as he left this star-studded Boston Red Sox lineup without answers.

KC Royals bottom-half of the rotation continues to look untouchable

Bubic and Lorenzen have been grabbing headlines all season with how they've gone about their business and shoved more often than not.

Thursday afternoon, we saw Bubic turn in another electrifying performance against the White Sox, going seven innings of shutout ball, surrendering just six hits and one walk while striking out seven.

Then on Friday, we saw Lorenzen go seven innings himself, surrendering just three hits while also striking out seven.

Bubic now has five outings where he's failed to allow an earned run, and seven of his eight outings have resulted in three or less earned runs. Bubic is now throwing to a 1.69 ERA and 1.10 WHIP.

Lorenzen just turned in his first shoutout outing but has three outings with one earned run and two more with just three allowed. Lorenzen is now sporting a respectable mid-3.00s ERA and has lowered his WHIP to a 1.26.

Kansas City's staff entered the weekend sitting second in ERA, fourth in WHIP and sixth in both FIP and BAA. And their single highest ERA is Ragans at 3.79 and their highest WHIP is now Lorenzen at 1.26. If those are the worst individual totals, it not only spells a complete unit, but as the season enters it's more mature state, it represents a sustainable one.

As mentioned earlier, there's little doubt that Ragans, Lugo and Wacha will continue to be solid arms this season, but as long as Bubic and Lorenzen keep turning in performances like they did this week, the trust will continue to expand across the entire starting five.