Royals end 'disappointing' road trip without a win 

BALTIMORE -- Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson’s home run off Royals reliever Jackson Kowar’s slider traveled so far, and was hit so hard, Sunday afternoon that not only did it hit Eutaw Street beyond the right-field seats, but it bounced up and hit off the warehouse that overlooks Camden Yards, next to a second-floor window.

It was the final dagger in the Royals’ 11-3 series-finale loss to the Orioles on Sunday and encapsulated Kansas City’s three-game set in Baltimore this weekend.

The Royals were outmatched and outplayed. Emphatically.

“I don’t know how [my teammates] feel about it, but I’m kind of frustrated, a little bit,” veteran catcher and Royals captain Salvador Perez said in a silent clubhouse. “At the same time, it’s part of the game. It’s not the way we want to go. Today is over. We’re not going to change it. We’re going to try to forget about it. Tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll try to do our best again.”

The Royals will return to Kansas City on Monday after a winless road trip through Miami and Baltimore. The six-game losing streak is Kansas City’s second-longest skid this season, one shy of matching a seven-game skid the Royals had in April. It was the longest winless trip since 2017, when Kansas City went 0-7 on a trip to Texas and Chicago.

The Royals have been swept in a three-game series seven times this season, matching their 2022 total. They haven’t won a series in Baltimore since 2014.

“Obviously disappointing to lose six games,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “How do we reset? We do the same thing we try to do every day. Every day is a new day. You come in with a new attitude. You start over and prepare for tomorrow just like you prepared for today. It didn’t work out well today. But today should have no effect on tomorrow whether it was positive or negative.”

The Royals were outscored 41-14 on this road trip. They did not pitch well, with a 7.60 ERA across these past six games. On Sunday, Royals opener Carlos Hernández gave up a three-spot in the first inning, shortly after the Royals had taken a 1-0 lead with Bobby Witt Jr.'s RBI double in the top of the frame.

Bulk pitcher Mike Mayers followed by allowing four runs in five innings -- three of which came in the third inning, only a couple of moments after Perez had tied the game with his team-leading 13th homer of the season.

“Any time you put runs on the board, you need shutdown innings,” Mayers said.

Hernández registered just one whiff on 15 swings from the Orioles. Mayers got five whiffs on 42 swings. Royals pitchers struck out just three Orioles hitters and walked five Sunday.

“[I need to] figure out why I’m getting less swing-and-miss, a little less chase on my slider than normally in the last two outings that I got in the previous three,” Mayers said. “… There were some good takes on it today, just below the zone or just off that are normally weak contact or swing-and-miss.”

The Royals didn't defend well on this trip, either -- save for a couple of good plays by center fielder Drew Waters and right fielder MJ Melendez. Perhaps most concerning is that they did not hit well.

Kansas City finished the road trip with a .208 average and .562 OPS. Perez’s homer snapped a four-game homerless skid, but the Royals registered just three hits after the third inning Sunday.

“I don’t think there’s one magic button you push to all of a sudden spark a lineup or anything,” Quatraro said. “It’s the consistency of the work, preparation, the quality of at-bats, and you hope that we start to string some of them together. There’s no one thing that we can change that all of a sudden we’ll be successful. Otherwise, we would have tried to do that already.”

The Royals aren’t giving up on the young hitters they have playing every day, especially in a season meant to evaluate those young hitters.

Where does that leave them? After Sunday, they are 18-47 this year.

“You have to keep grinding and keep playing hard,” Perez said of his advice to the young players that surround him. “Try to do your best. Not put more pressure than they have already.”