KANSAS CITY -- It was hard not to feel some sort of déjà vu when watching Thursday afternoon’s series finale between the Rays and Royals at Kauffman Stadium, because it was like a copy and pasted version of the previous two games in this series.
The Royals were shut out again, in a 4-0 loss on Thursday. They were swept at home again. They were searching for answers on how to spark this offense again.
That’s been the story of the season, which is now halfway over after the Royals played their 81st game on Thursday. At 38-43, Kansas City is five wins behind its 43-38 record at the halfway mark last year, and the club sits four games out of an American League Wild Card spot while watching the Tigers get out to a commanding lead in the AL Central.
Thursday was the Royals’ fifth consecutive loss and their 10th consecutive loss at The K.
"We're all in this together," said manager Matt Quatraro. “We’re not pointing fingers at anybody. Nobody’s blaming anybody. There’s no fault. We need to get better. We’re going to keep working at it. We’re going to prepare, we’re going to compete, we’re going to try to pick each other up. Every team goes through stuff like this, and it’s not unique.
“We’re going to be good. We’re going to keep fighting. We’re not giving up on anybody. We’re not running from anybody. We’re not running from the fact that it hasn’t been good enough. We just have to keep fighting. And that’s the best part – we say this all the time – we’ve got a game tomorrow. We’ve got a chance to turn it around.”
That chance will come against the Dodgers this weekend. And it has to start with the bats breaking out. Kansas City has been shut out 10 times so far this season, which accounts for 23.3% of its losses. In the last five games, the Royals have scored four runs, and they plated just one run against the Rays this week -- which came in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game.
On Thursday, they were held to five hits, two of which came in the ninth inning -- and one was a bunt base hit from No. 3 hitter Vinnie Pasquantino.
In perhaps a fitting ending for how things are going, Maikel Garcia hit a ball up the middle, only for Rays shortstop Taylor Walls to start a game-ending double play.
“I hit the ball where he wasn’t there, and [then] he was there,” Garcia said. “Bad luck.”
Royals officials point to underlying metrics that give them confidence the offense will turn it around, but eventually, results have to follow.
On Thursday, Rays starter Shane Baz baffled hitters with his cutter, a pitch he introduced this month, over eight scoreless innings.
“Not good enough,” Pasquantino said when asked about the at-bats as a whole on Thursday. “We’re continuing to have conversations about why, what we can do to fix it. We haven’t yet.”
It’s not as if the Royals haven’t tried to change things with their roster in the first half. They’ve made a number of promotions to see if players can provide a spark, but Drew Waters (.683 OPS), John Rave (.519), Nick Loftin (.610) and top prospect Jac Caglianone (.532) have yet to establish themselves.
“We’ve tried to do things that we thought were going to be beneficial,” Quatraro said. “Some of those players are young, and they’re still getting their feet wet here, and that’s fine. We’re developing players while we’re trying to win in the big leagues. There’s a fine line there. … We believe in the guys in that room. We’re not pointing fingers at anybody or playing a blame game. When we win, it’s everybody in there. When we lose, it’s everybody in there.”
The core players of this team remain unchanged from last year. That’s another reason why the belief hasn’t wavered; this group has won before.
And the Royals will continue to rely on those core players to improve, including Pasquantino, Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez, along with the breakout year Garcia is having.
Simply put, that’s how the second half can be different from the first.
“In my opinion, none of what is going on is anything other than us,” Pasquantino said. “It’s not the coaching staff. We’re about as prepared as you can possibly be. … I think we feel pretty confident in the way we prepare, and there’s not much difference than how we prepared last year. So there is a recipe for success in there somewhere. We just haven’t done it.”