The Royals have completely forgotten how to score runs

The Kansas City Royals are proving the hardest thing to do is sports is hit a fastball. After Monday’s 12-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, the Royals have now been shut out in their last four games.

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In fact, the last time the team scored a run came in the second inning of last Thursday’s game against the Colorado Rockies. Add that all up, and the Royals have gone 43 innings without scoring a run.

To add insult to injury, it’s not like the Royals just barely losing these games, either. They are getting crushed by the opposition.

On top on Monday’s 12-0 loss, the team also dropped Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Indians by the same exact score. Things have been pretty bad …

And they might get worse. With five more scoreless innings, the Royals will tie the Major League Baseball record.

That record of 48 consecutive scoreless innings is shared by the 1968 Chicago Cubs and the 1906 Philadelphia Athletics, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Despite all of that, the team somehow remains just three games out of the second wild card spot in the AL. That speaks to both how bunched up the standings are in the AL, and how awful Kansas City’s competition is for that final playoff spot.

The team’s recent stretch has done a lot to sink their postseason chances. After five straight losses, the club’s record has dropped to 20-23 in the second half. The Royals now have the fifth-worst run differential in the AL.

In fairness, we shouldn’t overreact to five games. We wouldn’t do that if it were May.

At the same time, it’s tough not to overreact when things look this bad. The Royals are still technically in the race, but they sure don’t look like a playoff team right now.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik