Royals aim to 'get back to ourselves' after tough stretch

OAKLAND -- After going 5-7 against three consecutive first-place teams -- the Mariners, Yankees and Dodgers -- the Royals’ schedule lightened up considerably this week, starting with the A’s, whose record is fourth-worst in baseball. But Royals manager Matt Quatraro and his players were adamant that they couldn’t lighten up no matter who they were playing.

The past two games have shown why.

After Alec Marsh turned in his shortest start of the season in Tuesday’s loss, Cole Ragans recorded a quality start Wednesday with two runs in six innings, but he received only one run of support in the Royals’ 5-1 loss to the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum.

Royals pitchers walked seven batters on Wednesday, including four from Ragans, while the offense left eight on base -- one in every inning except for the seventh, when Maikel Garcia grounded into a double play after Kyle Isbel’s single -- and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“They made some good pitches,” shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., whose double in the fifth drove in the Royals' only run all night, said. “We didn’t take advantage sometimes that we could have.”

The Royals have lost eight of their last 10 games and are 1-4 so far on this nine-game, three-city road swing through Los Angeles, Oakland and Texas. They’ve seen the Twins overtake them for second place in the division and remain six games back of the first-place Guardians. More alarming, as alarming as the standings can be in June, the Royals have gone from a 5 1/2-game lead for the final American League Wild Card spot to a one-game lead over the Red Sox in the past week.

“It always starts with pitching -- when you pitch well, you give yourself a chance to win,” Quatraro said pregame. “We feel really good about our pitching. So when we start to rattle those games off like we were, you’ll see more wins, hopefully, in a row. But regardless, we know during a season there’s going to be stretches of the season where you don't go on prolonged winning streaks.”

Wednesday was only game No. 75 of the season, and the Royals have been steady and relentless in their day-to-day approach, moving past the previous game and focusing on the game that day. They’ll have a quick turnaround to Thursday’s series finale, when Seth Lugo takes the mound and the Royals try to avoid being swept for the first time this year.

“When we show up at the yard, we’re a team that knows that we’re going to win a ballgame,” Witt said. “So that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow, show up and get back to ourselves.”

Ragans recorded his 11th quality start of the season, but his focus postgame was on the four walks he allowed, two of which came around to score in the third inning for the first two runs of the game.

Ragans struck out seven but needed 102 pitches to get through six innings. He registered 17 whiffs on 48 swings (35%) -- but those pitches often came deep in counts with his pitch count elevated.

“Just trying to be too perfect at times,” Ragans said. “I’ve got to be better with execution. Get ahead. It changes a lot of things when you get ahead. Puts them on the fence instead of me on the fence, trying to make a good pitch when I’m behind in the count. If I’m ahead, I have free rein with whatever I want to throw.”

Ragans threw seven shutout innings against the A’s earlier this season, when the Royals swept them in Kansas City, and the A’s felt like they got to him better this time when he’s been so good against them in the past.

“We did a good job being a little more patient tonight,” Brent Rooker said. “... You give him more of a chance to make mistakes and put good swings on it. He’s really, really good. So he goes out there on an off-night for him and still only gives up two runs. When you fight and get two runs off a guy like that, you give yourself a chance to win.”

It was the opposite for the Royals’ offense, scoring their only run off A’s starter Luis Medina, who entered Wednesday with a 5.87 ERA. The A’s bullpen shut them down again over 3 1/3 innings.

The momentum never stayed on the visitors' side.

“If you can’t capitalize and drive somebody in, then they get a little pump-up from that, and you probably get a little bit of a demoralizing feeling,” Quatraro said. “... We’ve just got to do better.”