KANSAS CITY -- For almost all of the first half, Jorge Soler searched for the power and production that led to his monster year in 2019, the one where he led the American League in home runs with 48 and set a Royals record for homers in a season.

He might have found an answer in the past week.

With home runs in his first two at-bats, Soler powered the Royals to a 4-3 victory over the White Sox in Monday night’s series opener at Kauffman Stadium, pushing Kansas City to its sixth straight win.

• Box score

The Royals are rolling right now, and it’s because they’re getting quality starting pitching and production in the middle of the lineup. Lefty Mike Minor tossed six innings of two-run ball with seven strikeouts. He worked out of a jam in the sixth inning when he adjusted his delivery back to what it looked like early in the game and struck out two to minimize the damage. Over the course of this six-game winning streak -- the best in the Majors -- Kansas City starters are 5-0 with a 3.06 ERA.

And in the middle of the order is Soler, who has homered six times in his last six games after homering just seven times in his first 85. Add that to the production the Royals are getting out of Hunter Dozier (two walks Monday), Andrew Benintendi (an opposite-field homer in the sixth inning) and the typical production out of Whit Merrifield, Salvador Perez and Carlos Santana, and this is how the Royals envisioned their team winning in 2021.

“We were drawing it up on napkins all through the winter and Spring Training,” manager Mike Matheny said. “You’re thinking, ‘There’s no break in this thing.’ There’s potential damage all the way through.”

Soler’s homer on July 9 in Cleveland snapped a 23-game drought (74 at-bats), the longest of his career. Since then, he has homered seven times in 11 games -- including back-to-back two-homer games. Soler became the fifth player in Royals history with back-to-back multihomer games, joining Perez earlier this season, Mike Sweeney in 2005, Darrell Porter in 1977 and Ed Kirkpatrick in 1969.

On Monday, he hammered a Statcast-projected 449-foot homer on the first pitch he saw from Dallas Keuchel to straightaway center field to put the Royals on the board in the second inning. That was his longest homer since his career-best 465-foot shot off Kyle Gibson on Aug. 3, 2019.

In the fourth, Soler went down 0-2 against Keuchel and then connected on a cutter in the middle, putting it over the left-center-field fence.

The biggest difference, Soler said Monday through interpreter Luis Perez, has been his pitch recognition and the way he’s loading up his swing. He’s sitting on his back leg longer, allowing him to see the pitch he wants, swing and make solid contact.

“It just allows me to get ready and recognize a pitch rather than being late and having to react to a pitch that’s already on top of me,” Soler said. “Getting the foot up and being ready to swing the bat has been really good.

“Before, I was looking at pitches in the zone and missing them. Now I’m not missing them.”

Soler broke out a huge smile Monday night when he was asked how much he has enjoyed this stretch of wins and his individual production. The confidence is there again after he fought through the worst slump of his career to start 2021.

A week of solid production doesn’t make up for the first half, but if he can maintain it, Soler has a chance to finish perhaps his final season as a Royal the way he was supposed to start it.

“He has the capability of doing things that most people who play this game don’t have,” Matheny said. “I know our fans have seen that in that season he had in ‘19. Pretty amazing what he was able to accomplish. To be able to keep at it, keep fighting, stay with it, trying to adjust, he’s being rewarded for his perseverance.”

This is the Jorge Soler the Royals want and need in their lineup. There’s no question he changes the look and production of the offense with his monster swing. And it’s also not a surprise that it’s coinciding with wins.

“It takes some of the heat off Benny and Carlos and Salvy, being the guys who have to drive in the runs all the time,” Matheny said. “They’re still going to do that, but now teams are going to have to be careful. They’re going to have to think about what these other guys in the lineup are doing.

“He’s a game-changer.”