Kansas City Royals’ scoreless streak extends to 43 innings

After seven scoreless innings and four straight shutout losses, the Kansas City Royals are six scoreless innings from breaking the all-time record.

The latest embarrassing performance by the Kansas City Royals offense led to a 12-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night. Royals hitters scratched out a hit and a walk in six innings against rookie Austin Pruitt, who came into the game with a 5.76 ERA. They added another hit and another walk in three innings against Matt Andriese, who had just been activated from the 60-day DL. It was another pitiful performance by an offense stacking up pitiful performances.

On Sunday, the Royals also lost 12-0. Carlos Carrasco and two Cleveland relievers allowed just six hits and didn’t walk a batter. It’s no shame to lose to Carlos Carrasco. He’s one of the top pitchers in the AL. A day earlier, it was Mike Clevinger and three relievers who blanked the Royals on four hits and three walks. Mike Clevinger is no Carlos Carrasco, but he is better than Austin Pruitt. The day before that, Ryan Merritt and three relievers shut out the Royals on eight hits and a walk. It was only the fourth start of Merritt’s career, who would likely slot in between Pruitt and Clevinger on the pitchers-who-shut-out-the-Royals leaderboard.

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Before this stretch of futility, the Royals had been shut out nine times in their first 125 games. Now they’ve been shut out four games in a row heading into their Tuesday game against Alex Cobb and the Tampa Bay Rays. You have to go all the way back to the second inning of their game against the Rockies last Thursday to find something other than a zero next to the Royals’ name on the scoreboard.

That’s 43 consecutive innings without scoring a run, just six innings away from setting a new MLB record. Their current streak of four straight games without scoring a run tied the MLB record for consecutive games being shut out.

When they face the Rays on Tuesday, the Royals will be looking to avoid breaking the record of 48 scoreless innings held by the 1968 Chicago Cubs and 1906 Philadelphia Athletics. Of course, those were different times. MLB teams are averaging 4.7 runs per game this season, which is more than a run higher than the scoring average in 1968 (3.4 runs per game) and 1906 (3.6 runs per game). The Royals have a shot at the scoreless streak record in a much better offensive environment, which means this streak is even worse than it appears at first glance.

The Royals’ five-game losing streak has dropped them to three games out of the second Wild Card in the American League. Before they forgot how to score runs, they were just a half-game behind the Twins. Their 43 scoreless innings have also dropped them to 13^th in the AL in runs scored and they are dead last in on-base percentage and weighted runs created plus (wRC+), which adjusts for league and ballpark. By that metric, they have the worst offense in the American League.

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And yet, they aren’t out of the Wild Card race yet. Streaks happen. Teams get hot, they get cold, they get lukewarm. The Royals’ offense is in a deep freeze at the moment, but all it takes is one long ball to end the streak, to ignite the spark, to put the Royals offense back in motion. Tuesday could be their day to get back in the scoring column.