Kansas City rides an eight-game winning streak into Toronto on Tuesday after wrapping a perfect homestand, and its manager is keeping the run in context.
The Kansas City Royals have turned a lost season into the most watchable stretch of their year.
Kansas City closed out a 7-0 homestand with Sunday's 11-7 win over Detroit, stretched its winning streak to eight games, and now takes that run on the road to open a three-game series against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night.
The streak started with the finale in Anaheim, rolled through a four-game sweep of the Athletics and finished with a three-game sweep of the Tigers, and it is the club's longest run since May 2024, according to Field Level Media.
Matt Quatraro is not letting anyone get carried away.
"You're going to be judged on the whole body of work, right?" the manager said, pointing out that the record at the beginning of the year was not great and that 30 games remain.
Even after eight straight the Royals sit at 58-74, ten and a half games back in the Central and eight behind Cleveland for the third wild card entering Tuesday.
Salvador Perez struck a similar tone after Sunday's win, calling the game crazy and saying the team has to prepare one day at a time, this from a catcher who stole an uncontested base on Sunday for his first steal since July 2021.
Team Effort
The eight wins have come from everywhere, and the finale was the best example, with Nick Loftin and John Rave powering the offense in the 11-7 finish.
Kansas City has outscored opponents 50-27 during the run.
The health is the one wrinkle, since Jac Caglianone was scratched from Sunday's finale with the right ankle soreness that has nagged him since the West Coast trip, an issue he aggravated in the Athletics series and had already dismissed as minor at the time.
Toronto Is a Real Test
The Blue Jays will be desperate in a way Kansas City no longer has to be.
Toronto sits at 64-68, two games behind Cleveland for the final wild card spot, and the Blue Jays have won 18 of their last 30 despite finishing a 3-3 road trip with Sunday's loss in New York.
Tuesday's opener sends Seth Lugo and his 4.71 ERA across 26 starts against Max Scherzer, who is 1-6 with a 7.40 ERA this season.
Lugo has handled Toronto well in his career, going 3-1 with a 2.52 ERA in seven games against the Jays.
On paper that matchup gives Kansas City a real chance to keep rolling, and the schedule only gets heavier from here, with three in Toronto followed by three in Cleveland against the team holding the wild card line, and these clubs meet again in Kansas City during the first week of September.
Quatraro's whole-body-of-work phrasing is the right way to describe a season that started poorly, but a stretch like this one is not empty, because young players are learning how winning feels.
A September full of games against contenders will show whether this group can keep it going.
