The Royals went 3-3 this past week with a series win on the road at the Chicago White Sox and a series loss at home against the Baltimore Orioles.

Royals pitching gave up four runs in their series against Chicago as they won two out of the three games to start the week.

Monday, April 15th: Kansas City 2, Chicago White Sox 0

Seth Lugo’s first start of the week and his fourth of the season was his fourth quality start. He was the star of the show going seven full innings while allowing just one walk and four hits. Lugo got the win and got his ERA down to 1.05 when his day was done.

The offense didn’t do much, but it was enough. Vinnie Pasquantino hit a solo home run with two outs in the top of the fourth inning for his third longshot of the season. Kyle Isbel drove in the other run in the following inning with an RBI single.

As for Chicago’s offense, they continued to do what they’ve done all season which is be the worst team in the league. The White Sox had just four hits and only six total baserunners.

Doubleheader Game 1 - Wednesday, April 17th: Kansas City 4, Chicago White Sox 2

After getting an unexpected day off due to the weather postponing Tuesday’s game, the Kansas City Royals won the first game of the doubleheader in comeback fashion.

However, the Royals started the scoring in the top of the second inning with Adam Frazier driving in a run on a single to center field.

Chicago responded with a Paul DeJong two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to give the Sox a 2-1 lead.

The score remained the same for most of the game until Salvador Perez did what he does best and that’s produce clutch hits. He hit a two-run blast in the top of the eighth inning to give the Royals a 3-2 lead.

Kansas City added a much-needed insurance run with Hunter Renfroe hitting a solo shot in the ninth inning.

James McArthur allowed a baserunner in the bottom of the ninth to give Chicago a chance, but he struck out the final batter of the game to get his fourth save of the young season.

Brady Singer was steady with two earned runs allowed, three walks and three hits with five strikeouts in five innings pitched. His ERA after the game’s end was sitting just a tad north of 1.50.

Bobby Witt Jr. was the only Royal with multiple hits in the game.

Doubleheader Game 2 – Wednesday, April 17th: Chicago White Sox 2, Kansas City 1

The second game was a pitcher’s duel that ended quickly in just two hours and 16 minutes. They got down 2-0 thanks to an RBI single from Dominic Fletcher in the fourth and a solo home run from Gavin Sheets in the sixth.

Just before the second run, Kansas City had a chance to score with runners on first and second with two outs, but MJ Melendez struck out to leave them stranded.

Renfroe got the Royals on the board in the seventh with an RBI groundout, but another chance to score was blown in the eighth inning as Dairon Blanco was caught stealing second base. Korey Lee caught a high fastball from Deivi Garcia and Nicky Lopez made a nice scoop and tag to end the Royals threat.

Michael Wacha pitched well despite not getting any help. He added another quality start to his tally with six innings pitched, four hits, two earned runs, two walks and four strikeouts. His ERA dipped below four with the performance. Unfortunately, he picked up the loss.

Friday, April 19th: Kansas City 9, Baltimore 4

The Royals came back home to take on the Orioles, whom they had lost to two out of three games in Baltimore earlier in the month. The Royals got their lone win of the series in the opener on Thursday.

After a solo bomb from Pasquantino in the fourth, the Royals hung up a five-spot in the sixth inning with all their runs coming with two outs. Melendez shook his cold series in Chicago with an RBI single to start the inning. Michael Massey made his season debut and started on the right foot by bringing in two more runs with a single. Renfroe also stayed hot with a two-run homer immediately after.

The Orioles would get right back in it with Adley Rutschman hitting a grand slam to left-center field in the seventh inning.

Melendez wasn’t done, though, as he sealed the game with a three-run home run to right-center field in the seventh inning.

He finished his day 2-for-4 with two runs and four RBI. Massey also went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI. Alec Marsh got the win by giving up no runs, two walks and three hits with six strikeouts in five-and-two-thirds innings.

Saturday, April 20th: Baltimore 9, Kansas City 7

Cole Ragans got shelled on Saturday as he gave up seven runs in the second inning.

Kansas City fought to make it a game again and they succeeded. In the sixth inning, Perez hit his sixth home run of the season with two runners on to make it 7-3.

A rare passed ball by Salvy in the top of the seventh gave the O’s an insurance run to put them up 8-3. In the bottom of the inning, Maikel Garcia delivered an RBI single to make it 8-4, but Isbel was cut down at third base on a brilliant throw from Colton Cowser in left field.

Later in the inning with the bases loaded and two outs, Perez got a two-run single to get the Royals within one run.

However, Anthony Santander added an insurance run in the eighth inning with an RBI double to give Baltimore a 9-7 lead and the Royals’ offense was unable to complete the comeback.

Perez finished his Saturday going 3-for-5 with five RBI. The other RBI came from Garcia as he finished his day going 2-for-5.

Sunday, April 21st: Baltimore 5, Kansas City 0

Nothing went right for Kansas City in the series finale. Lugo didn’t have his best stuff in his second start of the week, but even then, it wasn’t anything egregious. He went five-and-a-third innings with four earned runs allowed, one walk and nine hits. Lugo picked up his first loss as a Royal and his ERA jumped up to north of two in the defeat.

The Royals had a tough time against the Orioles’ starting pitcher Cole Irvin. They were only able to get on base six times against him in the six-and-two-thirds innings that he pitched.

After a forgettable finish to the week, the Royals are right back at it with a four-game home series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. They face Yusei Kikuchi to start the series, and he is arguably having one of the best starts to a season among anyone in the American League with an ERA just barely over one in April. They also have to face Jose Berrios on Thursday, who has a 4-0 record and an ERA of 0.85  for the entire season. The Blue Jays enter the series off a series win in San Diego against the Padres and are in third place in the AL Central with a record of 12-10.

Kansas City then goes to Detroit to face the Tigers for the first time this season starting a three-game set on Friday. Detroit currently has an identical record to Toronto and is coming off a series win in Minnesota where they took two of three games from the Twins. They will face the Rays in Tampa for three games before hosting the Royals.

The Royals are looking more and more like a legitimate playoff contender as the season progresses. Their starting pitching has been consistently dominant, their bullpen has caught up with the starters, and the offense has been really solid albeit they had some struggles this past week.

They are now 13-9 on the season and are now one week away from completing their first month of the regular season. At this point, I would argue that Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez deserve to be starting in the All-Star Game. Seth Lugo and Brady Singer deserve All-Star nods to this point as well, and I think you can make a pretty good argument for John Schreiber, Angel Zerpa and Vinnie Pasquantino. We are a ways from that point, though, as All-Star Game voting doesn’t open until May 31st.