Royals still on signature path to success

MINNEAPOLIS — The Kansas City Royals are in a good place, and we’re not talking about third in the AL Central.

That is just a transitional phase. They have won their last four series. They are the defending World Series champions, playing balanced, productive baseball. Their primary directions from here should be onward and upward.

You can disregard Wednesday’s 7-5 loss to the Twins. It was an aberration. The Royals are 5-1 against Minnesota. You literally cannot win them all. Dillon Gee gave up three home runs and six runs (five earned) in four-plus innings. The rest of the Royals couldn’t quite recover.

There was no trend forming here, no warning sign of imminent danger. It was just the Twins winning for the 12th time in 46 tries. They were, you know, due.

To briefly review the Royals’ 2016 work, they began 12-6, then hit a late-April/early-May downturn, during which they went 4-12.

“For some reason, we’ve just struggled in May the last couple of years,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I don’t know why.

“Usually, at the end of May we start to break out and do fine. It’s been no different this year. We’re starting to turn around our offense. We’re swinging the bats much, much better.”

The Royals have won eight of their last 12, including two out of three against the Red Sox and two out of three against …

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