KANSAS CITY -- In what has to be two of the most frustrating games of the season, the Astros again couldn’t find a way to take care of business against the Royals -- and gain ground on the A’s in the American League West race -- and have dropped two in a row at Kauffman Stadium.

The Astros’ struggles against non-contending clubs have been a season-long issue, with Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Royals near the top of the list. Houston, playing without key bats Yordan Alvarez (illness), Alex Bregman (quad) and Kyle Tucker (health and safety protocols), had no answer for Royals lefty Daniel Lynch, who came into the game with a 5.97 ERA and held the Astros to just one run and four hits in seven innings.

“A lot of teams you should beat, but you don’t beat them on a night when things are going their way,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “Framber [Valdez] threw the ball well. Just a lot of stuff didn’t go our way. A lot of balls bounced off the plate, we didn’t cover the bags, we got a runner thrown out at the plate. Things just didn’t happen for us.”

The loss dropped the Astros to 33-24 this year against teams with a losing record (they’re 37-25 against teams with a .500 record or better). Since having their 11-game winning streak snapped on June 26, the Astros are 23-21.

“We just haven’t been playing well against average teams,” said right fielder Chas McCormick, who struck out to end the game and strand a pair of runners. “You’ve got to give credit to the average teams for doing pretty well against us. We’ve got a target on our backs. We’ve got to take every game like we’re playing the best team in the league. That’s baseball. You come out slow and anyone can beat you any day.”

The Astros, who had one hit after the fifth inning, have been held to one run in two of their last three games on the heels of a club-record 22-game streak in which they scored at least three runs.

“No. 1, we don’t know these guys,” Baker said. “We haven’t played them in two years. They’ve got a whole new team from when we saw them last. They got an All-Star back there catching, [Salvador] Perez, he knows our team well. He’s navigating that young pitching staff throughout the game. He’s a guy that’s the general out there, and he’s a very good one. Hopefully, we’ll be better the next two games.”

In losing, 7-6, to the Royals on Monday, the Astros had two baserunning gaffes that proved to be costly. While they had a runner thrown out at the plate in the third inning Tuesday, it was their defense that betrayed them.

The Astros twice didn’t cover first base on choppers that bounced high off the plate. In the fifth, Nicky Lopez got an infield hit when Valdez and first baseman Yuli Gurriel both converged for a ball, so when Valdez caught it, there was no one at first. In the sixth, Andrew Benintendi hit a high chopper off the plate that Gurriel fielded, but Valdez did not break for the bag.

“The first one was kind of in no-man’s land, in between Framber and Yuli, and both of them went for the ball,” Baker said. “It’s a natural reaction. That ball couldn’t have been placed any better or any higher. The other ball, we just failed to cover first base.”

How costly was the miscue on the Benintendi ball? Valdez hit the next batter with an 0-2 pitch, and Hanser Alberto made the Astros pay when he stroked an 0-2 pitch inside the left-field line for a two-run double that broke a 1-1 tie.

“We were trying to bounce it because [Alberto] swings at almost everything, but he put the ball in play and he hit it down the line,” Baker said.

If you’re looking for a silver lining, Valdez pitched well in defeat, holding the Royals to three runs while scattering nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. Valdez walked just one batter -- which came on his 99th and final pitch -- after averaging 6.1 walks per nine innings in his previous eight starts. 

“It was my plan to go out there and not allow any walks tonight and stay 100 percent focused at all times,” Valdez said. “Outside of that one walk, I was able to do that.”