'We gotta dig deep': Royals' skid reaches 9

BOSTON -- When it rains, it pours. Though the rain held off after two hours and 21 minutes of delays the previous night, the Royals’ recent struggles continued on Thursday afternoon vs. the Red Sox.

Kansas City capped its 10-game road trip with its ninth straight loss, falling to Boston, 15-1, at Fenway Park in the four-game series finale. The nine losses mark the Royals’ longest road skid since dropping eight in a row from April 9-26 in 2017. With the sweep came a season series loss, with Kansas City’s last season series win vs. Boston coming in 2017, when it went 4-2.

• Box score

“Brutal is probably a pretty good description. Embarrassing,” manager Mike Matheny said. “I think those two [words] the guys would agree with. We’ll leave it at that. … One of the most important things that we can do is continue to get that honest feedback on days like today, get feedback on days that the result isn’t right but the process is.”

Though there were some sunny moments in this series vs. the Red Sox -- including a 4-for-4 Wednesday night for All-Star hopeful Salvador Perez -- the cloud of Kansas City’s streaky offense, starting pitching woes and overall low morale hovered over the majority of the Royals’ time in Boston.

Here are three takeaways as they return home to host the Twins on Friday:

Streaky offense
Despite dropping all four games of the series vs. the Red Sox, the Royals outhit the home team by five (34-29) in their first three meetings. The offensive showing included three home runs in the opener, with another three on Tuesday before Perez added one in his slump-busting outing on Wednesday.

The upward trend in offense came to a halt on Thursday, as the Royals were outhit 17-8 and nearly blanked by the Red Sox. Their sole run came on a two-out RBI double from Jarrod Dyson in the ninth.

Carlos Santana and Nicky Lopez each went 2-for-3, with Kansas City’s only other extra-base hit coming on a Hunter Dozier double in the second inning.

Starters in trouble early
Of Boston’s 29 runs in the first three games, Royals starters were responsible for 15 of them. Mike Minor, who got the start on Wednesday, was especially looking for a turnaround after surrendering a career-high nine runs to the Rangers last weekend. Instead, he was tagged for five runs in five innings and was charged with the loss.

In Thursday’s finale, starter Kris Bubic ran into trouble early, surrendering a home run to Red Sox leadoff man Kiké Hernández to open the first. After giving up the long ball, Bubic hit a batter and walked the next before Matheny visited the lefty on the mound. After that, Bubic retired six straight, three of which came via strikeout. Bubic left the game having surrendered three home runs, all of which came on changeups.

“I thought he got a little handle on it,” Matheny said of Bubic after the first inning. “Obviously he got hit right away with a home run. That never is the best start for us, but he did a nice job. I mean, he’s heading into the fourth inning there with only one hit -- a home run -- and then it just kind of stockpiled on him. We had a good hitter [J.D. Martinez] again that hit another changeup. Going to continue to talk to Kris about confidence in all of his pitches and how much it’s going to be important for him to not be so predictable.”

Unlike in the previous three games, the struggles continued once the starter handed the ball over to the bullpen. Ervin Santana pitched through a four-run fifth inning. He hit a batter and balked in a run. Josh Staumont followed and gave up three runs in the sixth on a Rafael Devers no-doubter.

Team still fighting
The Royals now depart Boston and head home for the first time since hosting the Red Sox on June 20. Despite a packed schedule with no off-days until the All-Star break, Friday’s opener vs. the Twins at Kauffman Stadium will be a welcome change for Kansas City as it looks for a momentum switch in its upcoming six-game homestand.

Though a change in environment could be a start in helping the Royals put an end to their recent skid, Matheny noted that it’s going to take a lot more than a change of venue to get the players to where they know they can be.

“We gotta dig deep and realize that what we’re feeling right now is not what we want to feel,” Matheny said. “How we’re playing overall, the results are not what we want, so get back to what we can control, and that’s a winning process of how we work, prepare and compete. So there’s no magic to this, it’s not easy and it gets harder because it compounds. Keep going, keep fighting."