Last Thursday, Brandon Moss hit a home run during the second inning for the Kansas City Royals against the Colorado Rockies.
The home run gave the Royals a lead of 2-0 in the game and gave many the hope the team was poised to sweep the Rockies and win its fourth consecutive game that would give them momentum entering an important weekend series at Cleveland.
On Monday, the Royals lost 12-0 against Tampa Bay and in the process extended their scoreless streak to 43 straight innings since the home run by Moss last Thursday.
During the same period, Royals’ opponents have plated 35 runs which is an average of more than 9 runs per game.
Kansas City has not matched the Major League Baseball record for being shut out at four consecutive games and is just six innings short of breaking the record for consecutive scoreless innings.
Following the game on Monday, Royals Manager Ned Yost could only say that he did not have an explanation for the team’s futility run and would not be able to come up with anything to explain it.
During the four-game run of futility, the Royals have dropped far back from the Indians as they now trail Cleveland by 10 games and have just 32 left on the schedule.
As the team tumbles down the standings players seem to be less interested on the field, falling behind by 12 runs in just the second inning Sunday at Cleveland and by 7 runs on Monday in the third inning.
Ian Kennedy was the most recent pitcher to have a poor outing. Kennedy has now started 17 straight times at home without winning dating back to August of last year while allowing 59 runs over 88 innings during those 17 starts.
At the same time, Kansas City has not been able to hit any pitcher. On Monday, they faced Austin Pruitt, a rookie who had an ERA of 5.76 entering the game.
It appears that any hope for the postseason has been lost during the past 43 innings. The Royals are not only 10 games behind the Indians in the AL Central but sit six games behind in the race for the second and final wildcard spot with just 32 games to play.
