KANSAS CITY -- Momentum teetered toward the Royals’ side as Michael Massey jogged to first base in the sixth inning Tuesday night, having just worked a 10-pitch walk. That brought up Salvador Perez with the bases loaded and no outs, as good of a time as any for the Royals to break through against the Guardians.

Tanner Bibee ensured that never happened.

The Royals scratched just one run across that inning against the Guardians starter, the only run that they scored all night in Kansas City’s 7-1 loss at Kauffman Stadium.

Perez lined a rocket right to left fielder Steven Kwan, who kept Tommy Pham at third base. Paul DeJong brought Pham home with a sacrifice fly, but MJ Melendez struck out on a foul tip, stranding the final two baserunners of the inning.

“Just couldn’t get any breaks,” DeJong said. “And that’s kind of how tonight went.”

The Royals’ seventh consecutive loss dropped them 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Guardians in the American League Central, although they haven’t lost any of their 4 1/2-game lead in the Wild Card race with Boston’s loss Tuesday. The Royals sit in the third Wild Card spot, a game behind the Twins, who also lost Tuesday.

Kansas City is 4-9 in its past 13 games, which lines up with when it began a stretch of 20 straight games against teams who currently hold a playoff spot.

“It’s never good to go through these things, but we’re going through it now,” said Bobby Witt Jr., who had two of the Royals’ four hits Tuesday. “We’re going to get through it. And it’s better to go through it now than when we really need it.

“... I don’t really look at it like a losing streak. We lost today. And then we move on to tomorrow. We just got to get back at it tomorrow.”

The slump starts with the offense, which has been held to three runs or fewer in six consecutive games. The Royals entered the day having been outscored 32-16 and batting .171 on their losing streak.

The sixth inning was the best chance to change that. Bibee, who had allowed five runs in five-plus innings last week against the Royals, had stymied them for five innings with just one hit, one walk and one hit batter before Pham led off the sixth with a double.

Back-to-back walks from Witt and Massey set the stage for the middle of the order to capitalize.

“With Tommy, Bobby and Massey having really good [plate appearances], yeah, you felt the momentum come,” acting manager Paul Hoover said. “Sal hits the ball really, really hard. Paul does the same thing. We get one, we’re happy with one. But it would have been nice if one of those line drives fell in the gap and we were able to score.

“... It stung that we were only able to get one.”

It stung even more when the Guardians immediately added insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning with No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio’s two-run homer off reliever Sam Long.

Things got ugly with the Guardians’ three-run eighth inning against Lucas Erceg, who was charged with all three runs while pitching for the first time since he exited Thursday with a bruised hand, and James McArthur.

For the second consecutive start, Royals starter Brady Singer (9-10) deserved the win. This time, he was handed the loss despite limiting the Guardians to two runs across 5 2/3 innings. He relied on his four-seamer and sweeper much more on Tuesday, trying to keep a familiar lineup filled with left-handers at bay.

“Lefties have been doing a better job than the right-handers against me,” Singer said. “So trying to change things up, trying to figure out ways to get them out.”

While Singer worked around traffic, the Royals offense was trying to figure out ways to put pressure on the Guardians. Kansas City left eight on base Tuesday night and went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

In this seven-game losing streak, the Royals are batting 6-for-37 (.162) with runners in scoring position. The sixth inning Tuesday was positive just by having runners in scoring position, even though only one run scored.

“Every guy knows what they can do for this team, so it’s just a matter of unlocking that without pressing too much,” DeJong said. “I know I pressed a little bit, some big swings, trying to get it all back with one swing. Maybe we need to do the small things a little better tomorrow, string some stuff together, putting pressure on the other team is how we’ll bust out of this.”