KC Royals turn to road trip to close out 1st half: ‘Gotta string some wins together’

As the Kauffman Stadium stands emptied for the night and the smoke of the postgame fireworks show cleared, Royals second baseman Michael Massey stood in the clubhouse with a tear on the shin of his pants.

It came at some point during Thursday’s 3-hour, 25-minute-long clash against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The July 4 game concluded the Royals’ homestand with a 10-8 victory for the Rays — who took two of three in the series.

But as the MLB schedule goes, Massey and the Royals face a quick turnaround as they shift gears for a weekend in Denver against the Colorado Rockies — the start of an eight-game road trip to close out the first half of the season.

The Royals play three games in Denver, two in St. Louis and then three in Boston heading into the All-Star Break.

Massey, whose second-inning home run gave the Royals their first run on Thursday, takes these challenges day by day.

“To be honest with you, I don’t even remember what we did this homestand,” Massey said. “I was just focused on tonight, and I feel like it’s kind of what we’ve been doing all year, which is: ‘The past is the past, and we’ll worry about tomorrow when (tonight’s) over.’”

The Royals, 48-41 this season, have gone just 17-23 on the road entering the road trip. They are 31-18 at home and went 6-4 in the recent 10-game homestand.

The Rockies, 30-57 entering the series, are 18-26 at home.

Players like outfielder Hunter Renfroe say they’re prepared for whatever they face over the weekend — even if that means digging out of a hole like the team attempted to do on July 4.

“Trying to put as much pressure on the opposing pitcher as we possibly can,” Renfroe said. “No matter what the score is, even if it’s out of hand, we want to go out there and try to make them throw their best pitchers.”

Thursday night’s starting pitcher Alec Marsh — who had a rocky start and two violations (pitch clock, disengagement) — showed faith in the team’s upcoming slate.

“Things will start falling our way and get back in that ‘W’ column on the road,” Marsh said. “(We’ll) take this momentum into the road for sure.”

The bottom line? Manager Matt Quatraro provided it:

“We gotta string some wins together.”