Royals Superstar Not Hitting Panic Button Despite Season-Worst Losing Streak

Should the Royals be showing more urgency?

Aug 31, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) watches during batting practice before the game against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

All teams go through rough patches, but what the Kansas City Royals are experiencing right now feels a lot more serious.

After dropping their third-straight game against the rival Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday, the Royals have lost a season-high seven games in a row. And much of the slide feels like it hinges on one ugly moment last Thursday.

On the error that tied the game and ultimately led to the Royals' 6-3 loss against the Houston Astros, first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino suffered a broken thumb. He's out a reported six-to-eight weeks, and the Royals haven't scored more than two runs in any game since.

In a week where everything is going wrong, it seems like there's cause for the Royals, who few expected to be in a position to compete for the playoffs, to panic. But their franchise player, Bobby Witt Jr., seems relatively unconcerned.

“It’s never good to go through these things, but we’re going through it now,” Witt said, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com “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.”

Witt has still been hitting throughout the losing streak, so one can't place blame on the superstar for his team's struggles. He's hit two home runs since Pasquantino's injury, while the rest of the team combined has hit just one.

Unfortunately, despite what Witt and the rest of the team might see, the rest of America sees a losing streak, and a bad one at that. But Witt is also correct that the Royals might be getting this out of the way at the right time.

With the Boston Red Sox also floundering, the Royals have maintained their 4 1/2 game cushion in the American League wild-card hunt. The Detroit Tigers have also crept up within 4 1/2 games, but according to Baseball Reference, the Royals still have an 81.2% chance to make the postseason.

Perhaps that's not as comfortable a margin as Kansas City would have liked, but it still appears far more likely than not that the Royals secure a spot in October. If they can get themselves right by then, this ugly stretch will be just a blip on the radar.

But the Royals had better secure their postseason spot at this point, because the rest of the American League has seemingly gift-wrapped it to them.

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