KANSAS CITY -- A few times during this offensive rut the Royals find themselves in, hitters have emphasized that the way to get back to playing their brand of baseball is by scoring early, which puts pressure on the opposing pitching staff from the beginning of the game.

Bobby Witt Jr. wants the Royals to just score: Early, late, whenever, however.

“I think just scoring in general,” Witt said of the emphasis on the offense. “Once we do that, we’ll get the confidence back and it’ll be good.”

Right now, it’s not so good for the Royals, who did not score at all in their 9-0 loss to the Giants at Kauffman Stadium, extending the losing streak to six games and increasing the concern with seven games to go in the regular season.

Kansas City has endured its two worst losing streaks of the season over the last three weeks, dropping a season-worst seven in a row at the end of August through the beginning of September before six consecutive in the past week.

Although they still sit as the second American League Wild Card team, the Royals’ grip on a postseason spot has slipped considerably: They’re now just a half-game ahead of the Twins, who have a doubleheader against the Red Sox on Sunday and are in the third spot. The Royals are just one game ahead of the Tigers, the first team out of playoff position. The Royals do not have the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Twins but do against the Tigers.

Saturday’s loss handed the Guardians the American League Central title. Since Aug. 28, the Royals have gone from being tied with the Guardians for the division lead -- with a 6 1/2-game cushion for a postseason spot -- to just one game separating them from the second Wild Card spot and being out of playoff position.

“When you lose, it stings,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “It’s no fun. No one in there is having fun right now. You don’t want to play like this, especially in front of your own fans. We expect more of ourselves. Our fans expect more of us, and we’ve put ourselves in a position that they should. And we have just not played well in this last stretch of games.”

In the five previous games entering Saturday, the Royals were outscored by just seven runs, including a trio of one-run defeats and a pair of two-run losses.

On Saturday, the Royals trailed by nine runs by the sixth inning. Brady Singer allowed four solo home runs and was charged with six total runs in 5 1/3 innings. Reliever Carlos Hernández took over in the sixth and was charged with another three runs in the Giants’ six-run inning.

Singer was “not sure” what led to the season-high 12 hard hits against him, he said. LaMonte Wade Jr. tagged him for two homers; Matt Chapman added two more.

“Four home runs, obviously not what you want to do,” said Singer, who has a 6.19 ERA in his past six starts, all Royals losses.

Once again, though, the offense was a glaring absence. Kansas City has scored just 13 runs over its current six-game skid and has gone just 8-for-52 with runners in scoring position (.154). On Saturday, the Royals had a baserunner in seven of their nine innings. A runner was on second base in the first five innings. All were stranded.

“We have to put together better at-bats,” said Witt, who is 4-for-7 this series with a walk. “When we score first and get on the board, that’s when things are going well. We’re not doing that right now.”

Since Aug. 28, when the first long losing streak began, the Royals have averaged 3.18 runs per game in a 22-game span. In the 133 games before Aug. 28, the Royals averaged 4.88 runs per game, which ranked eighth in MLB and fifth in the AL.

The drop-off has been jarring, and the frustration is palpable. With a week to go, they’ve got to fix it quickly.

“We’re in a playoff race in the last week of the season because of the guys in that room and the character and the way they’ve turned the page all year,” Quatraro said. “We’re having a tougher time turning the page. Teams get into these ruts. We got to figure out, with a week to go, how to get out of this rut. And you know what I’m going to say is we’ve got our best opportunity to start that tomorrow. And they’re completely aware of that.”