Having a staff ERA of 8.29 isn't exactly a recipe for success, and the Royals can point to a complete pitching meltdown in August as the major cause of their recent 10-game losing streak. Beyond the 8.29 ERA, the Royals also feature an August WHIP of 2.14, a BAA of .327 and an OPS-allowed of .957, all good for 30th best in baseball. In other words, dead worst. Essentially, every hitter the Royals face has been performing as if he's Mike Sweeney circa 2001... Ouch.
Offensively, its hard to say that things have been going well, as the Royals sport an August line of .234/.290/.393, which ranks as 25th/27th/20th respectively. And no, I'm not sure how 10 teams are slugging worse than our boys this month...
So, in short, things aren't good, and don't look to get better. With the Rockies miraculously taking a double-header tonight, our lads stand 5 games behind the next worst team in baseball, with a sterling winning percentage of .342. Detroit, struggling to a blase 53-58 season, holds a full 15 game lead over the Royals, meaning that we're nearly as far behind the 4th place Tigers as the Devil Rays are behind the Yankees!?!?