HOUSTON -- Four times in the last four days, the Royals have taken an early lead against the vaunted Astros pitching staff. In three of those games, Houston's juggernaut offense took that lead right back.

Thursday’s 5-2 loss at Minute Maid Park encapsulated a frustrating series loss for the Royals, who scored 22 runs across four games but lost three of four and hit the 81-game mark of the 2022 season 21 games under .500 (30-51).

“We want to put ourselves in a better spot going forward,” infielder Nicky Lopez said after going 2-for-4 Thursday. “We’re unhappy with how the season’s played out so far, record-wise, but if we can put ourselves in a better position moving forward and look toward the future, I think that’s a positive.”

The biggest positive takeaway from this Houston series was the offense. The Royals received contributions from up and down the lineup facing one of the league’s best pitching staffs. They scratched two early runs against Justin Verlander on Lopez’s RBI single in the second and Kyle Isbel’s sacrifice fly in the fourth, but went quiet later against the Cy Young Award candidate.

That two-run lead wasn’t safe. Lefty Kris Bubic finished 5 1/3 innings with three runs allowed on four hits, six walks and five strikeouts after the Astros pounced on him in the fifth with home runs from Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez, who homered in all but one game this series.

“Frustrating, because regardless of what the box score says, I felt like I had them right where I wanted to in a lot of counts, in a lot of situations,” Bubic said.

Relievers Wyatt Mills and Dylan Coleman kept it a one-run game, but Jose Cuas allowed two more runs while Royals pitching issued 10 walks Thursday.

“We have some guys filling some different roles in the bullpen, and that’s never easy, especially with guys who haven’t been around very long,” manager Mike Matheny said. “That’s going to continue to be a work in progress, continue to give guys opportunities and see who takes advantage of them. But overall, as I look through this whole road trip, our starters went man-to-man and gave us a great chance to win.”

It’s hard not to wonder where the Royals would be if their pitching had met the front-office’s expectations entering this season. The club’s improvement, several officials said, would hinge on the improvement of the Royals’ young starters. There would be struggles, of course, but the organization sought a little more consistency as several pitchers from the 2018 Draft entered their second or third years with Kansas City.

It hasn’t gone as they expected.

Entering Thursday, the Royals ranked third worst in the Majors in ERA (4.97) and strikeouts-per-nine (7.40), while they were last in walks-per-nine (4.06). The rotation had a 5.16 ERA (third worst), the bullpen a 4.71 ERA (fourth worst).

Bubic was better than he’s been earlier this season on Thursday, and none of the six walks he issued came around to score. But they put him in jams far too often. In the third, Lopez and Whit Merrifield combined to make a stellar double play, erasing the leadoff walk Bubic issued and giving him two outs for Martín Maldonado at the bottom of the Astros' order.

Bubic walked Maldonado -- who entered the game hitting .143 but was 3-for-3 with a walk Thursday -- and Altuve before getting the inning-ending strikeout.

“You make those kind of plays, and you get to the bottom of the order, be aggressive,” Matheny said. “You’ve got pitches you can use inside the zone that give you a great chance. Let your defense do what they just did. Those will come back, and I’m sure it’s a conversation we’ll have again, but it’s trust, and trust takes time and experience.”

Kansas City will almost certainly look for pitching help as the Trade Deadline looms. It’s clear that if the Royals want to finish the season better than they started it, improvements must be made on the mound, all while staying consistent at the plate. 

“We’ve got to buckle some things up, but we take away that we can go toe-to-toe with these teams if everything clicks on all cylinders,” Lopez said. “Obviously, we need to execute a little bit better.”