Royals are stumbling into the stretch run. But their fate remains their own to write

During his daily pregame media session in the Kauffman Stadium home dugout a few hours before the Royals played host to the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, manager Matt Quatraro was asked in the umpteenth way over the last few weeks if he might allow that this particular today was maybe more meaningful than all the others.

And, accordingly, whether he had felt the need to address the team about the magnitude of the moment.

And/or if the team had spoken with him about it.

“I did not; they did not,” he said, with a rare micro-hint of impatience. “Again, we play 162 of these, and they all count the same at the end of the year. So if you try to build it up to be more than it is, that’s where you get in trouble.

“You have to come out here and keep yourself under control from the first pitch. It’s not football, it’s not basketball, where emotion has more to do with it. (If) you come out here and try to get too hyped up, you get out of your game.”

The notion of being in the moment, encapsulated in Quatraro’s “today” directive, has been a fine guideline for the Royals in this season of exhilaration, redemption and even resurrection:

It’s not just that they had lost 106 games a year ago, but also that they had averaged 100 losses (99.6, to be precise) over the last five full seasons (not including the pandemic-shortened 2020). From out of that quagmire, they’ve hoisted their way up into one of the most substantial and compelling turnarounds in baseball history and a grasp on their first postseason berth since 2015 — and just their third since 1985.

Trouble is, at right about the wrong time they’ve gone from seizing these todays to ceding too many in this intensifying crucible of a playoff race.

Enough so to make a playoff return that was starting to look like a lock now seem to be back to an anxiety-inducing prospect.

Just after stabilizing in the wake of a seven-game swoon, the Royals on Wednesday lost 4-2 to Detroit as the Tigers completed a three-game sweep and sent the Royals to the fourth straight loss.

In the shuffle, the Royals’ Wild Card status has been reduced from a nice buffer zone to part of a muddled clump.

As of late Wednesday night, the Royals (82-71) held a 1.5-game advantage over Minnesota (80-72) for the second of three Wild Card berths with Detroit (80-73) lurking just two games back.

Along the way, the Royals effectively have been knocked out of any realistic last-gasp chance at the American League Central crown (they were six games behind Cleveland as of Wednesday night) …

Even as it appears the playoff prospects will largely amount to a derby among three AL Central brethren for the second two spots.

No wonder that it’s a thrilling and stressful time all at once for fans — part of what owner John Sherman called “the beauty of the sport” when I spoke with him last week.

“They’re living and dying with every game,” Sherman said. “When you do lose a game, it’s more painful than it was a year ago.”

As for where this goes from here, well, that might depend on your belief system now.

Because nothing can be taken for granted, as general manager J.J. Picollo put it the other day, adding, “It’s fragile.”

The upside is that about everything that has made for this revival (other than the absence of the injured Vinnie Pasquantino) remains in place, starting with Bobby Witt Jr. and Sal Perez and the starting rotation that would provide flotation in any playoff series.

But also hovering over them is the bullpen volatility and a too-often sporadic offense: In the last 19 games, the Royals have scored fewer than four runs 11 times — including three of the four losses in this sequence.

Now they’ve got nine games left to reset and distinguish themselves.

“I know we still control our own fate as far as getting into the playoffs, and that’s all you can really ask for,” Quatraro said after the game. “We have to play better. We have to win some games.

“Clearly, we can’t count on someone else losing a whole bunch of games at this time of year, but you don’t want that anyway. You don’t want to count on the other team. You want to believe in yourself. And we wouldn’t be in this spot if we didn’t have guys that we believe in.”

Whether this funk has been in part because players are squeezing the bats too tight because of the stakes is a matter of conjecture that only any given individual can know, Quatraro suggested.

But it’s not something he wanted to lend much credence.

Then he pointed to a perhaps-underappreciated asset that the Royals can rightfully hope will surge to the forefront during the stretch run: an infusion of veterans with postseason experience.

As much as has been made about the coming of age of Royals youth, this team features 10 active players and five on the injured list who have played in the postseason and nine overall in World Series games.

“We have a lot of guys in there that have been through this before,” Quatraro said before the game. “We have a lot of guys that have been on teams that have been out in front. We have a lot of guys that have been on teams that have had to put the hard charge on at the end.”

Now the hardest of charges starts with what Quatraro has insisted has been the way all along: next game up and keep it in perspective.

And win the next one on Friday against the visiting San Francisco Giants, and they’ll get a vital injection of morale and confidence and the sense of a fresh start — not to mention hold serve in the standings.

Lose it, and, yes, it’s on to the next … but leaving them one less “today” to help themselves with.