HOUSTON -- After defeating the Guardians on Tuesday, the Royals were tied with Cleveland for the American League Central lead. The past five days of the eight-game road trip were not kind to Kansas City.

Alec Marsh pitched well and Bobby Witt Jr. hit his 30th home run of the season, but it was not enough as Kansas City dropped its season-high fifth straight game, 7-2, to the Astros on Sunday at Minute Maid Park.

The Royals were swept for just the second time this season and swept in a four-game series for the first time since losing four straight to Boston on June 28-July 1, 2021, at Fenway Park.

“The whole series was frustrating,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We didn’t come out of here with any wins. That’s what we play for is to win every day. That stinks. These guys are good. We knew that coming in, but I can’t sum it all up in one. Every game was different. We were in every game. They pitched extremely well. They got big hits, and we didn’t.”

Kansas City fell 3 1/2 games behind the Guardians in the AL Central.

“I think what’s important for us is to just flush the series and move on to the next,” Marsh said. “We have big ones coming up, so just get to that next game and focus on tomorrow, leaving this one behind us. We’re going to be playing better ball here moving forward.”

The Royals have six at home against Cleveland and the Twins starting Monday.

“This is tough,” MJ Melendez said. “It didn’t seem like anything was going right. … It’s a little bit of a tough stretch, but hopefully, we get back home, get back in our environment and do what we do at home.”

Marsh retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, but the Astros got to him in the fourth.

Yordan Alvarez led off with a home run to right, and Jon Singleton hit a two-run homer to right to give Houston a 3-0 lead.

“He threw the ball well,” Quatraro said. “He got beat on two breaking balls for homers. They looked from the replay that they were down in the zone and guys put good swings on it. Overall, I thought he threw the ball exceptionally well.”

Marsh surrendered three runs on four hits and one walk with five strikeouts in five innings.

He mainly used a mix of four-seam fastballs (28 of 73 pitches), sliders (13) and curveballs (12), but he had a lot of success with his sweeper. Out of seven sweepers, the right-hander got six swings and four whiffs.

“It was pretty solid,” Marsh said of his outing. “I thought my command was good. All the pitches were shaping up the way they should be. Attacking the zone was nice. Really, it was just two good swings on two pitches that I thought were good pitches. … I thought my fastball was jumpy. Getting ahead of guys was great. Overall, I was a lot better in my eyes.”

Witt became the first player in Royals history with consecutive 30-home run seasons with his solo shot into the Crawford Boxes in the seventh inning.

His two 30-homer seasons tie Danny Tartabull for most in franchise history, but Tartabull didn’t reach the milestone in back-to-back years (1987 and ‘91).

“We talk about him all the time,” Quatraro said. “We can’t take for granted what we are seeing there. The first guy in Royals history with back-to-back 30-home run seasons. At his age, the things he does playing every day, the grind of the season and how mature he is, everything he does stands out. Whether that’s physical, mental, leadership qualities, they’re remarkable, and we don’t take that for granted.”

The Royals also got production from two newcomers as Yuli Gurriel, in his first game with the Royals since being acquired Saturday, hit an RBI single in the sixth, and Tommy Pham had two hits in his debut after being claimed off waivers Saturday.

However, the Royals continued to struggle to drive in runs. Kansas City had at least one man on in every inning except the second and ninth and finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

“The opportunities were there,” Quatraro said. “We took some walks. We just didn’t come up with the big hit when we needed it.”