Vinnie Pasquantino continues to lead KC Royals lineup amid team's recent struggles

The Kansas City Royals entered their weekend series against the Boston Red Sox on May 9 flying high, winning five straight series while only dropping two games in their previous 17.

Since then however, it's been an entirely different story. Entering Monday’s contest with the Reds, the Royals had dropped four of their last five series and gone 6-9 in their last 15.

And after yet another disappointing loss on Monday, the Royals find themselves deeper and deeper in a hole.

With so much going wrong on the offensive end, there has been a lone bright spot in this lineup. Vinnie Pasquantino continued to keep this KC Royals batting order somewhat afloat despite the loss, extending his hitting streak to 10 games in the process.

Vinnie Pasquantino continues to lead the KC Royals lineup amidst recent struggles

Since the Red Sox series when their skid began, the Royals offence has not just been bad - it's been one of the the league's worst, if not the worst, across the board. As a team, they sit tied 28th in OPS (.640) and dead last in HR (5), RBI (38) and wRC+ (75) in that span.

And looking at key hitters in the lineup individually entering Memorial Day, it's easy to see why this is the case.

Franchise cornerstone Bobby Witt Jr. was slashing just .233/.273/.400 with a 69 wRC+, leadoff man Jonathan India was slashing just.196/.288/.261 with a 57 wRC+, Team captain Salvador Perez may’ve moved up the all-time catching home run leaderboard, but is slashing just .186/.200/.254 with an 18 wRC+, and All-Star hopeful Maikel Garcia has looked simply average with a 101 wRC+.

Pasquantino must have missed the memo though, as the Royals first baseman has been unfazed by the mediocrity surrounding him in the lineup.

In fact, of the regular hitters in the lineup he's by far and away the only thing to get excited about on a daily basis.

In that same 15-game span ahead of Monday's contest, he was slashing .328/.359/.443 with two homers, seven RBI and a 126 wRC+. Other than Garcia's slightly above average wRC+, Pasquantino is the only above average qualified hitter by a pretty substantial margin.

And Monday’s three-hit contest in the losing effort not only gave him four-straight multi-hit games, but once again did nothing to harm his torrid stretch at the plate.

This has only been an example of just how strong the Pasquatch has been since the beginning of May, as so far this month he's slashing .333/.360/.490 with four home runs, 12 RBI and a 138 wRC+ in 100 plate appearances.

After a slow start to the season in April, KC Royals fans are undoubtedly seeing the type of breakout they've eagerly been awaiting for from Pasquantino since he arrived in the majors back in 2022.

Despite how good things have been going at the plate for Pasquantino, he hasn't lost sight of the team-aspect of this game, as Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported his postgame frustrations amid the team's overall offensive drought.

"We got to hit. That's what we're here for," Pasquantino said. "Today was a frustrating day."

He will have a chance to continue his red-hot pace on Tuesday night with the hopes that his fellow lineup mates will come alive as well in order to get the Royals back on track and in a stronger point of contention in the AL Central and the American League in general.