CLEVELAND -- A rainy day in Cleveland ended the Royals’ first half of the season ahead of this week’s All-Star break, as Sunday’s game against the Indians was postponed. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sept. 20, with two seven-inning games starting at 4:10 p.m. CT.

The Royals end the first half of the season with a 36-53 record, a season-worst 17 games under .500 and at the bottom of the American League Central as play began Sunday -- far worse than what they expected after racing out to one of the best records (15-9) through April.

Despite the record and the standings, the Royals enter the All-Star break with their best record in the first half since 2017 (44-43) and with six more wins than they had prior to the break in '19. They ended the first half with a vigorous 19-day stretch without an off-day, and it was clear by the end of it that players were battling through the mental and physical grind.

The four days of rest -- for everyone but Whit Merrifield and Salvador Perez, who will represent the Royals in the All-Star Game -- is coming at a good time.

“This is a well-deserved break,” manager Mike Matheny said. “These guys have pushed hard. Trying to measure up with expectations of teams in the past, how are these guys going about it, and there’s a lot of things that we point out that they’ve done really well. But there’s some other things that we’ve got to fix. And making sure that 24 of them give baseball a rest here for a bit. Make family a priority.

“But after that, we’re making it really clear that we’re expecting to do some really good things in this next half. When we get back, be prepared. We’ve got to work. We’ve got to get better. That’s going to come with effort, and that’s something I know these guys aren’t afraid of.”

It’s hard not to dwell on what went sideways in the first half, especially with this being the year the Royals believed they could turn a corner toward contention again.

Shortstop Adalberto Mondesi has played just 10 games this season, missing the first month with a right oblique strain and now on the injured list again with a left oblique. Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler, two bats the Royals were counting on heavily this year, have vastly underperformed, with a .586 and a .599 OPS, respectively. Their Opening Day starter, Brad Keller, didn’t have the continued success from the past two seasons to start this year, but he did put together two excellent starts to end the first half on a positive note. The rest of the pitching has been inconsistent, and the bullpen has taken the brunt of the work, leading to some fatigue as it enters the break.

The good news is the season isn’t over, and there have been positive signs. Brady Singer continues to establish himself as a reliable starter, and Scott Barlow emerged as an elite high-leverage arm in the bullpen. Perez continues to be the most dangerous bat in the lineup, and Nicky Lopez has been one of the brightest spots for the lineup after he was originally going to start the season in Triple-A. After coming up, he has filled in at shortstop smoothly, hitting .265 in the No. 9 spot of the lineup.

The break offers a reset for the club, and they have two and a half months to have a better second half than the first.

“It’s all about how we get better,” Matheny said. “We’ve spent enough time analyzing, second-guessing, deliberating on what’s happened already. And as far as righting the ship, it’s amazing how, so many times, the little things would make the conversation different. So how do we fix those little things that become big things that end up being the determining factor for what this team does?

“Part of the message to this club is expect a really cool story. Expect to come back here and do something special. That’s my expectation. It’ll be hard [during the break] to not think about the things that we’re going to be able to do to make that a reality.”

The Royals return to play on Friday against the Orioles at Kauffman Stadium. They haven’t announced who will start, but they have a chance to reset their rotation with the break and additional off-days next week.