Red-Hot Royals Roll to Nine Straight Wins, Longest Streak Since 2017

The Kansas City Royals may have found their groove too late to completely erase a difficult season, but right now, nobody in baseball wants to see them coming.

Kansas City defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 Tuesday night, extending its winning streak to nine consecutive games — the Royals' longest run of victories since July 2017.

And this hasn't simply been a string of lucky one-run wins.

During the nine-game streak, Kansas City has outscored its opponents 55-30, combining a suddenly dangerous offense with much-improved pitching and timely defense.

The streak began Aug. 16 with a 3-0 road win over the Los Angeles Angels. Kansas City then returned home and didn't lose again, sweeping four games from the Athletics before taking all three against the Detroit Tigers.

That gave the Royals a perfect 7-0 homestand, capped by an 11-7 victory over Detroit on Sunday. It was only the fourth time in franchise history Kansas City completed a perfect homestand of at least seven games.

Then the Royals took the show on the road.

Kansas City opened its series in Toronto Tuesday by knocking off future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer and the Blue Jays.

Veteran Salvador Perez again played a major role, driving in two runs, including a go-ahead RBI single in the fifth inning. Seth Lugo allowed just one run over five innings while striking out five.

Kyle Isbel added an RBI sacrifice bunt, Carter Jensen brought home another run with a sacrifice fly and John Rave delivered an RBI single in the ninth.

Even when Toronto threatened late, Kansas City's defense found a way to finish the job.

The Blue Jays scored twice in the bottom of the ninth before Nathan Lukes attempted to stretch a two-run single into a double. Kansas City cut him down at second base to end the game and preserve the streak.

A Different Royals Team

The winning streak doesn't erase everything that happened earlier this season.

Kansas City enters Wednesday at 59-74, still sitting at the bottom of the American League Central.

But the team playing right now hardly resembles the one that dug that hole.

Young players including Carter Jensen, John Rave, Nick Loftin and others have contributed alongside established stars such as Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. The pitching staff has also provided several strong starts during the run.

Michael Wacha allowed only one run over seven innings in Saturday's 3-1 victory over Detroit, while Noah Cameron threw five scoreless innings one night earlier as Kansas City won 5-2.

The Royals have won games with home runs. They've won with pitching. They've won high-scoring games and low-scoring games.

Most importantly, they've simply kept winning.

Chasing No. 10

Kansas City will have a chance to reach another milestone Wednesday night when it faces Toronto again.

A victory would give the Royals 10 consecutive wins for the first time since June 2014.

That streak became part of a memorable Royals season. Kansas City eventually captured the American League pennant and reached the World Series for the first time in nearly three decades.

The current Royals still have a long way to go before comparisons like that become realistic. Their early-season struggles left them with an enormous hill to climb.

But nine straight wins are nine straight wins.

For a team looking toward both the final month of 2026 and what it hopes will be a much stronger 2027 season, this run is giving Royals fans something they haven't had much of this year:

A reason to be excited every night.

Kansas City and Toronto are scheduled to play again Wednesday at 6:07 p.m. Central Time, with the Royals attempting to make it 10 in a row.