The Royals aren’t scoring, but they’re winning. So what should you make of it?
Say this for the Royals: No franchise in Major League Baseball is doing more with less offensively right now — a dynamic they flexed again Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.
In all its thrifty glory.
Enabled and redeemed by stellar pitching, a team that remains second-to-last in MLB in runs scored (3.14 a game) nevertheless won its sixth game in a row — KC’s longest such stretch since winning eight in a row last May.
In the process, the Royals neutralized the immediately preceding six-game losing streak and reset to what could be considered a fresh start with a .500 record (14-14).
Trouble is, on Sunday they flashed just how vulnerable this slouching offense funk makes them when they lost 7-3 to Houston in the series finale after beating the Astros 2-0 two days in a row.
That result means as they head to Tampa to start a six-game road swing that the Royals still have scored more than four runs in a game just twice since April 4 and only four times this season.
That makes their recent trend, or at least the way they’ve achieved it, seem unsustainable.
Perhaps epitomizing the wobbly upside, each of their game-winning hits Friday and Saturday were by way of sacrifice flies.
But ... guess what?
Anxiety-inducing and exasperating as it is to still be left wondering when and how and maybe even if this group will hit its offensive stride, those wins counted the same as a victory with a deluge of runs would have.
And there is something sustaining about the week that was of maximizing scarce resources as a signature while they try to gain more offensive traction.
“I think it’s proving what we always thought about ourselves,” said Vinnie Pasquantino, whose home run accounted for the Royals second run Saturday. “Which is if the offense isn’t in full swing, we can still win games. So we’ll get there.
“There’s never a doubt about that. Not in our minds. … We just haven’t gotten there yet. The good thing is we’re still able to win these games. When you score two runs and you’re able to win back-to-back nights, it’s huge.”
It does. But, alas, it doesn’t alleviate concerns about how this team can ultimately make good on Pasquantino’s faith it will become more consistently productive than the version that’s currently also among the worst in MLB in batting with runners in scoring position.
Still, the winning streak reflects a few reassuring elements of the makeup of this team.
First and foremost, the Royals almost always are going to have a chance to be in the thick of any game because for a second straight year their starting pitching (thus far) is among the best in baseball.
The fact was reiterated by Michael Wacha’s dandy performance on Saturday (six scoreless innings) following Seth Lugo’s gem on Friday (eight shutout innings).
Which came a day after Michael Lorenzen’s six innings of one-run ball among a group arguably led by 2024 Cy Young finalist Cole Ragans and rounded out by Kris Bubic (who still has a 2.25 ERA after giving up four runs in five innings on Sunday).
Meanwhile, the bullpen highlighted by Lucas Erceg (0.87 ERA, eight holds) and Carlos Estevez (seven saves) is increasingly an assurance that if the Royals can muster a lead it will endure: They are 10-0 after leading through six innings, 12-0 ahead after seven and 13-0 following an eighth-inning lead.
As for the pesky matter of attaining the lead to be held?
That still looms over this because the only two regulars reliably producing offensively are MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia.
Even if the likelihood of what might be called progression to the mean of their career stats suggests Pasquantino (hitting .181 … albeit with 16 RBIs), Salvador Perez (.224, 14 RBIs) and leadoff man Jonathan India (.213) should find their grooves in the months to come, it’s problematic that Witt and Garcia are the only two players with more than 50 plate appearances this season who are hitting better than Kyle Isbel’s .235.
It’s all a reminder of two very different faces of these Royals, who can tread water this way but can’t go on like this and expect to return to the postseason.
Sure, they’re resilient enough to nimbly recover from a deflating early season losing streak, and they’re resourceful enough to cobble out wins despite meager offense by virtue of pitching and defense that has committed the third-fewest errors in MLB.
But the pitching can only keep them afloat so often and so long. And while it’s still early, if this offense doesn’t get revived or revved up or otherwise awakened before long, they’re going to squander some really good pitching.
And end up being known for doing less with more of that than about any other team.
This story was originally published April 27, 2025 at 8:15 AM.