DETROIT | Among the many criticisms leveled this season at Royals manager Trey Hillman, the one sure to bring the swiftest &mdash; and sharpest &mdash; rejoinder is any suggestion that his club rolled over and stopped trying.</p><p>Typical is this lengthy response from a week ago when a Detroit television reporter broached the subject during Hillman&rsquo;s regular pregame media session in the Royals&rsquo; dugout. </p><p>&ldquo;Sure, it&rsquo;s tough not to take that part of (any criticism) personally,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are a lot of things I try not to take personally &hellip; The effort and the energy and the attitude overall (is good), especially factoring in what we&rsquo;ve been through as a club and the number of losses we&rsquo;ve put on the board.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see guys quitting. I see them continuing to fight within the constraints of who we&rsquo;re battling against and how we&rsquo;re performing. I wish we were performing better. But in spots, obviously, we haven&rsquo;t.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve scuffled out of the bullpen. We&rsquo;ve scuffled all season long in run production. We&rsquo;ve made offensive mistakes; we&rsquo;ve made defensive mistakes even with all of the early sessions and continuing with the early work and the sessions we have behind closed doors.</p><p>&ldquo;But the attitude has remained very good.&rdquo;</p><p>All of this was before the Royals swept the first-place Tigers at Kauffman Stadium. In fact, the Royals have won six of their last seven as they prepare for a three-game rematch against Detroit that begins tonight at Comerica Park.</p><p>That recent success would seem to validate Hillman&rsquo;s point even as the Royals, at 57-86, trudge toward a last-place finish for the fifth time in six years in the American League Central Division.</p><p>But he goes further by declaring the Royals not only never quit but are in fact making significant strides as an organization that go overlooked by those who focus solely on the standings.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think all of the factors have been evaluated fairly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It all goes back to what we all get judged on &mdash; wins and losses &mdash; because that&rsquo;s what counts in our world and in our culture of immediate satisfaction and what have you done for me today. There&rsquo;s a lot that goes into (evaluating an organization).</p><p>&ldquo;I know of a lot of things that are in the works for our minor-league system and our scouting department; things that I&rsquo;ve seen improve just in the two years that I&rsquo;ve been here.&rdquo; </p><p>Hillman draws parallels to his early days with the Yankees, whom he joined in 1989 as a minor-league coach before serving in their system as a manager from the following year through 2001.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not too dissimilar,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Arguably, they&rsquo;ve got more money than anybody else. But they didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs (from 1981) until 1995 and didn&rsquo;t make the World Series until &rsquo;96.&rdquo;</p><p>Hillman cites stability within the Royals&rsquo; organization as a growing strength. In particular, he points to the recent decision by owner David Glass to extend the contract of general manager Dayton Moore through 2014.</p><p>One of Moore&rsquo;s first subsequent acts was to confirm Hillman will return next season to fulfill his three-year contract. The future beyond that is uncertain.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to be here,&rdquo; Hillman said. &ldquo;But if I&rsquo;m not here, that&rsquo;s not the end game for me. I didn&rsquo;t come into this with a selfish attitude, and I&rsquo;m not going to go out with a selfish attitude. I just want the organization to get better.&rdquo;</p><p>Despite the record, he believes it has.</p><p>&ldquo;On most days,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I can keep the big picture. But there are a lot of days that I haven&rsquo;t (been able to) because of the frustration over the lack of wins. You try to stay as consistent as you can and give your best honest effort in working every day and let it fall where it falls at the end of the day.</p><p>&ldquo;It gets discouraging when you&rsquo;re not winning ballgames, but the biggest reason it gets discouraging is because most of the time that&rsquo;s the only gauge that most people use as to whether or not you&rsquo;re successful or unsuccessful. There are too many other factors that go into it.&rdquo;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">Royals at Tigers </span></strong><br /> &bull;<strong>WHEN: </strong>6:05 tonight</p><p>&bull;<strong>TV: </strong>FSKCHD</p><p></div>