KANSAS CITY -- Entering Friday night, Brady Singer had a 3.88 ERA in 48 career starts after a Royals loss. Even as he seeks consistency this season, he’s turned into a stopper on the mound, and he did enough Friday to continue that.

If it wasn’t for the struggling Kansas City offense.

Singer allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings against a powerful Angels lineup, but the Royals' offense scuffled again in the 3-0 series-opening loss at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals mustered just four hits, went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base in their 10th consecutive loss.

“It’s baseball. We’ve got to keep going,” Singer said. “These guys are working hard, we’re working on everything we can. We’ve just got to keep pushing. These are things that are going to happen. It sucks that it’s happened this many times in a row. But it’s a long season, and we’re going to get through this and move on.”

Kansas City has been outscored 61-26 over this 10-game skid to mark its longest losing streak since an 11-game streak in May 2021. Friday was the club’s ninth shutout loss of the season, breaking a tie with five other teams for most in the Majors.

The Royals are batting .145 (10-for-69) with runners in scoring position during the streak, and they’ve left 65 men on base. They hit into a double play twice on Friday with runners in scoring position against lefty Patrick Sandoval.

“It looked like he was good at reading hitters,” Royals first baseman Nick Pratto said of Sandoval. “We had some hard-hit balls first time through the lineup, and he just got away from what he was doing that first time through. We chased him out of the zone too much, myself included.

“We’re just looking for solutions. Guys are working hard, and that’s all you can ask for in a space like this. We know eventually it will translate onto the field, but it’s just tough right now to see the results aren’t coming.”

Singer kept the Royals in the game despite a shaky first inning when he allowed a run and had runners on the corners before picking a runner off on the bases. The Royals' righty settled down until the sixth, when he allowed a single to Mike Trout and an RBI double to Brandon Drury. Singer slipped on the mound during Trout's at-bat, which may have disrupted his timing. After Hunter Renfroe singled, manager Matt Quatraro turned to Carlos Hernández to finish the inning.

“Little unfortunate there in the sixth, he slipped, and I think it kind of broke his rhythm a little bit,” Quatraro said. “We were right in the heart of their order, so it’s hard to say [if it caused the hits]. He threw 5 1/3. Two runs against that lineup is pretty solid.”

The up-and-down nature of Singer’s 2023 season can be boiled down to fastball command -- whether he has control of his sinker or not. He had it for the most part on Friday, able to pair it well with his slider and throw in a few changeups. Singer struck out five and walked two (Trout and Shohei Ohtani, two of the best hitters in the game).

It’s been a season of struggle for Singer, who had a breakout 2022 season and was looking for further improvements in ‘23. So far, he’s just seeking consistency. Singer has been charged with at least four earned runs in seven of his 14 starts, while he’s held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in the other seven starts.

When he’s in the zone with his sinker, it’s hard for hitters to pick up on the movement, and Singer ends up getting called strikes. When he’s spraying the ball, hitters can not only stay away from swinging at his sinker but pick up his slider more often.

“The biggest thing that I want to do right now that I haven’t been able to do is stay in the zone,” Singer said. “I’ve let some walks go on, bad pitches. Tonight, I tried to compete in the zone with what I had tonight. As much as I could.

“I feel like I can always use the slider when I need to, but to have the slider and the fastball, it’s better.”