A backup catcher scored from second base when Brian Bannister dropped a pop-up. David DeJesus took a poor lead off third base and made the last out trying to score on a wild pitch.</p><p>Billy Butler airmailed a short throw to Zack Greinke, and this was the same game Tony Pe&#241;a Jr. missed a pop-up in part because the sunglasses he ordered hadn&#8217;t come in yet.</p><p>All that transpired in the Royals&#8217; last nine games, played without Mark Grudzielanek, injured by a diving teammate while chasing a pop-up.</p><p>Some teams can get away with mistakes on fundamentals. Not the Royals.</p><p>&#8220;Worst in baseball,&#8221; Jos&#233; Guillen says when asked to rate his team&#8217;s fundamentals. &#8220;I&#8217;m just telling the truth. You watch and see what I&#8217;m seeing. It&#8217;s the worst in baseball.&#8221;</p><p>Plenty of other Royals, including John Buck, Joey Gathright and Pe&#241;a also admit the team could improve its fundamentals, though none go as far as Guillen.</p><p><em>The Star</em> asked five scouts who&#8217;ve watched the Royals at least several times this year to rate the team&#8217;s fundamentals. Two said average, two said slightly below average, and one said &#8220;in the bottom third, but not the worst.&#8221;</p><p>Either way, fundamentals have been a significant part of why the Royals&#8217; 2008 season is falling below most expectations. This is a little more disappointing for the Royals because Trey Hillman emphasized fundamentals like few managers in recent memory, continuing on through the season with pitchers&#8217; fielding practice and pregame lessons on baserunning.</p><p>&#8220;Seen a lot of things in this game,&#8221; one long-time scout says. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never seen that.&#8221;</p><p>Hillman is fond of saying there&#8217;s no such thing as a little thing in baseball, an emphasis on fundamentals he came up with as a minor-league manager and then flourished with in Japan.</p><p>He calls the Royals&#8217; fundamentals &#8220;very good,&#8221; with the notable exception of pop-ups. He mentions the team&#8217;s cutoffs and relay throws as much improved &#8212; Guillen and Alberto Callaspo executed a relay that got Magglio Ordo&#241;ez at the plate last week.</p><p>Hillman also recognizes his team needs to get better to be the one he envisioned in spring training.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll just get out here and work on it,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Say, &#8216;Catch the pop-up.&#8217; That&#8217;s the priority. We just have to keep doing it. Keep working.&#8221;</p><p>&#8226; &#8226; &#8226;</p><p>Funny thing, trying to judge a team&#8217;s fundamentals. The eyes don&#8217;t lie to us, but the memories can. That goes for fans the same as it does reporters and everyone else.</p><p>Ken Harvey will always be remembered around these parts for being hit in the back with a relay throw. Kerry Robinson is the guy who climbed the center-field wall, only to watch the ball bounce on the warning track in front of him.</p><p>DeJesus&#8217; base-running mistake, or Butler&#8217;s bad throw, or Pe&#241;a&#8217;s whiffed pop-up are burned in our memories, ready-made examples of the Royals&#8217; mistakes but misleading if taken to mean the Royals are alone in their struggles.</p><p>The Twins are often cited as the golden example of baseball done right, a team doing all the little things and executing their fundamentals and blah, blah, blah, so does it surprise you to learn the Twins have made nine more errors than the Royals this year?</p><p>&#8220;Take Anaheim,&#8221; Buck says. &#8220;They&#8217;re the best at going first-to-third, moving runners over, they play a lot of one-run games. At least that&#8217;s what you hear. When you play them, a short series, they don&#8217;t really do that more than anybody else.