Good news: The Royals won both of their series openers this past week at home against the Mariners and at the Cubs.

Bad news: Those were their only wins this past week.

The Kansas City Royals also clinched a losing record for the 2023 season, but let’s be honest, we all saw that coming at some point.

They started the week with a 7-6 win against Seattle this past Monday in what was actually a fun baseball game.

It got started with a three-run home run from Salvador Perez in the first inning to put the Royals up 3-0 early.

Bobby Witt Jr. added onto that with an inside-the-park home run in the fifth inning in what should have been just a single but was misread by Mariners’ left fielder Dominic Canzone. Maikel Garcia then walked with the bases loaded in the sixth to go up 5-0.

Julio Rodriguez has almost single-handedly lifted this Mariners team to a potential playoff berth, and he helped them get back into the game with a bases-clearing three-RBI double in the eighth inning. Eugenio Suarez then brought Rodriguez in with an RBI single to make it 5-4.

In the top of the ninth, the Royals’ worst fears were realized when Seattle took the lead in the ninth inning after RBI singles by Josh Rojas and J-Rod.

Kansas City then responded with two runs of their own to win the game in the bottom of the ninth with a clutch Perez sac-fly and a walk-off suicide-squeeze bunt single from Dairon Blanco.

Tuesday’s game provided more ninth inning heroics by the Royals, but they would lose the game in the tenth inning 10-8.

With Kansas City trailing 8-5 going into the bottom of the ninth and the bases loaded, Michael Massey provided his third hit of the day that brought home two runs to cut their deficit to one run.

Perez got another timely RBI with a single to tie the game, however, the game would be sent to extras after Blanco slowed into third base and didn’t slide before being tagged out.

That mistake would prove to be costly as Ty France got the game-winning two-RBI single in the top of the tenth.

The trend of exciting finishes continued on Wednesday in the Royals’ 6-5 defeat.

The game was even 4-4 going into the eighth inning before the Royals gave up the lead with Dylan Moore scoring on fly ball out in foul territory. Rodriguez would provide an insurance run in the ninth to give the Mariners a 6-4 lead.

Nelson Velazquez provided a lead-off solo homer to start the ninth, but after that Seattle would retire the next three Royals to end the game.

Kansas City had a chance to tie the series with a win on Thursday afternoon, but they couldn’t get it done as they lost 6-4. Seattle was able to score six or more runs in every game of the four-game series.

It was also another comeback win for the Mariners. The Royals had a 4-2 lead going into the eighth inning. Rodriguez went 5-for-5 on Thursday and provided the go-ahead three-run home run. Cal Raleigh hit one out with no one on in the ninth as an insurance run, thus clinching the series.

They then took a short flight to Chicago for a three-game weekend bout with the Cubs at historic Wrigley Field.

The Royals have been historic this season, though, not in a good way, obviously, but they were able to escape a small three-game losing streak with a 4-3 series opening victory on Friday afternoon.

They got out to a 2-0 lead with an RBI base hit from Kyle Isbel and yet another sac-fly from Salvy. However, they gave the lead right back with RBI hits from Jeimer Candelario and Nico Hoerner along with an RBI groundout from Christopher Morel.

In the sixth inning, the Royals would take the lead right back with a two-run home run from Witt Jr. to go back up 4-3.

The Cubs tried to get a rally going in the ninth with Hoerner hitting a single to right field, but he tried to stretch it into a double and Drew Waters gunned him down for the second out of the inning. Hernandez sealed the win with a strikeout for their 40th win of the season.

The Royals had to play catchup on Saturday which resulted in a 6-4 loss.

They found themselves down 6-1 after the fourth inning, and their second run wouldn’t come until the sixth inning with an RBI groundout from Freddy Fremin.

Witt Jr. hit an RBI single in the seventh inning and Isbel got an RBI double in the eighth, but that would be it from the Royals’ offense.

Kansas City’s went scoreless for seven consecutive innings on Sunday which were sandwiched by the first run of the game and a pair of ninth inning runs. They would fall 4-3 in their series finale to secure another series loss.

A very winnable series is coming up this week with the Oakland Athletics (34-90) welcoming in the Royals from Monday-Wednesday. I say that, but KC lost a three-game series to the A’s in early May at home.

They follow that series up with another series against the Mariners, this time in Seattle. That will be a standard three-day weekend series with each game becoming more and more meaningful for the AL West squad.