Late-season charges nothing new to Royals

KANSAS CITY — On Aug. 5, the Royals dropped their third straight game, falling, 4-3, to the Blue Jays. At that point, the 2015 World Series champions were just 51-58 and sat 11 games back of the first-place Indians in the American League Central and 9 1/2 games back of an AL Wild Card spot. Any hopes of a playoff run seemed to be dwindling.

But marginal odds have never stopped the Royals before. They’ve defied logic, overcoming deficit after deficit for two magical postseason runs. They trailed, 7-3, with five outs left in the 2014 AL Wild Card Game against the A’s. One year later, they trailed the Astros, 6-2, entering the eighth inning of an elimination game in the AL Division Series. Both times they came back.

And sure enough, it seems as though they’re on the doorstep of another comeback. Winners of 13 of 15, as well as five straight series, the Royals have thrust their name back into the playoff conversation.

“I can’t explain it, you just ride it,” manager Ned Yost said. “It feels good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a run that was not unexpected. We knew even when we were struggling, we were going to get it together and go on a nice run and make things real interesting. We were just waiting for that to happen.”

And things have certainly heated up in August. After finishing off their first four-game sweep over the Twins since May 1999, the Royals will enter Tuesday’s series against the Marlins having won eight in a row.

“Our rotation has been unbelievable. Our bullpen is back, doing what we’re known to do,” left-hander Danny Duffy said. “The team’s been doing great. [We] just have to keep that up.”

“This whole streak that we’ve been playing with, I feel like everybody’s been kind of clicking at the same time,” right-hander Ian Kennedy said. “You knew this group was capable of doing it. It just took a little while.”

As the …

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