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The Kansas City Royals kicked off a homestand on Thursday evening, as they hosted their American League Central rivals in the Detroit Tigers. After a hard-fought nine innings, the Royals lost by a final score of 4-2 and dropped to 2-4 on the season.The lo s was not only Kansas City's fourth of 2022, but it was their Duncan Robinson Jersey fourth in a row. The club started off the year with back-to-back wins against the Cleveland Guardians but ever since, their bats have been inconsistent and young starting pitching has gotten gashed. Starting pitching wasn't the problem in Thursday's series-opener and while the bullpen allowed a pair of runs, the Royals' offense was the main i sue once again.In half of their six games thus far, the Royals have been held to three or fewer runs. Ironically, both of their wins came in games that were low-scoring affairs. During their losing streak, the team has been outscored by a 37-17 margin. In reality, that gap would be even wider had it not been for attempts at late-game heroics in the final Cleveland game and the first St. Louis one. The pitching has undoubtedly struggled but on Jake Ryan Jersey Thursday, the bats deserve a good deal of the blame.Kansas City left eight runners on base against the Tigers, and the lineup went just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position. A lot of the shortcomings happened early on, as Bobby Witt Jr.'s first inning triple led to nothing and having both Carlos Santana and Hunter Dozier on base with no outs in the second also left a blank result on the scorecard. Witt later struck out looking with a chance to do damage in the fourth inning.After the game, Royals manager Mike Matheny spoke about his team's mi sed opportunities early on. He not only acknowledged that plenty was left on the table in the first half of the game, but also reiterated that the Royals' bats were quiet once they scored a pair of runs in the fourth frame.Scroll to Continue"Those were our chances early," Matheny said. "Really, after the fourth, not a lot going on. Two opportunities that we let slip by, and we continue to talk about them. It's a Amara Darboh Jersey whole lot easier to talk about than it is to get it done."It's been a difficult season for a lot of Kansas City's lineup. Witt, Santana, Whit Merrifield, Salvador Perez and Adalberto Mondesi are all batting .200 or lower, which isn't a recipe for succe s. The 2022 season was always going to at least partially revolve around the batting order's ability to get on base, and that simply isn't happening a ton right now. The Royals can't get out of their own way.Whether it's starting pitchers getting shelled right out of the gate, the bullpen struggling to keep games particularly close or the hitters failing to produce, Matheny's team is finding new ways to lose. It's very early in a 162-game season, but the marathon isn't going to get smoother with so many deficiencies popping up so early.Sure, some of it can be chalked up to small sample size slumps and overall bad luck, but it's alarming nonethele s. Matheny knows that the aforementioned runs left on the table will come back to bite the Karl Kauffmann Jersey Royals over the course of the year."Those come back when you realize it's in a tight game," Matheny said. "You have an opportunity, even right at the first, to make a mark. Those are ones that we're going to keep talking about, that we have to do at a high percentage of the time. In close games, it's going to come back and get you."The Royals will have three more chances to make a mark in this series, so it isn't all doom and gloom in Kansas City. There's plenty to watch for as the early stages of the season progre s, and Gerald Ford Jersey it'd be unreasonable to write the 2022 version of the team off yet. Several things need to be cleaned up, and those in charge of performing are aware of it. Time will tell if those areas see improvement.