How Kansas City Royals pitcher Jordan Lyles finally snapped that ghastly winless streak

Kansas City Royals starter Jordan Lyles smiled as he walked into the visitors’ clubhouse at Tropicana Field. He waited for all of his teammates to arrive, giving each a celebratory high-five.

The moment was too special to resist. Lyles, winless through 15 starts entering Saturday afternoon’s game in St. Petersburg, Florida, had finally broken the proverbial glass ceiling.

At long last, he could look at the box score and see his name attached to a victory as the Royals’ pitcher of record.

“It feels really good,” Lyles said of Saturday’s 9-4 Royals win against the Tampa Bay Rays. “I think just a little bit even more so of just how we played all-around team-wise.”

Lyles was rewriting some ignominious MLB history. He owned the longest winless streak to begin a major-league season. And the Royals hadn’t given him a lot of help offensively: The KC offense always seemed to sputter during his starts.

That lack of run support, coupled with an errant inning or two, was a recipe for disaster. And the losses piled up in short order.

On Saturday, Lyles was headed down a similar path. He allowed four early runs. But then Lyles and Royals catcher Freddy Fermin made a critical adjustment: They started to attack the Rays’ lineup with renewed aggression.

Lyles used all six pitches in his arsenal with efficiency. He threw 75 pitches and had an even distribution across the board: 15 sweepers, 13 cutters, 12 changeups, 12 sinkers, 12 fastballs and 11 curveballs.

That combination resulted in 37 swings and seven whiffs by Tampa Bay’s potent lineup.

“It’s a lineup over there that can wear you down and wear you out,” Lyles said. “You blink and they already sent four or five hitters to the plate. (I was) just getting quick outs to get our offense back into the dugout so they could keep swinging it.”

Unlike in Lyles’ previous starts, the Royals began to come back in the third inning. Drew Waters hit his second home run in the series and the Royals scored three runs. In the fourth, Fermin drilled a three-run homer to give the Royals a 6-4 lead.

Having ample run support appeared to help Lyles settle into a groove. He and the Royals’ Saturday relievers — Carlos Hernandez and Nick Wittgren — retired the Rays’ final 17 batters.

Lyles improved to 1-11 this season. He pitched six innings and allowed eight hits. The four early runs were the only damage to his ledger.

“Somebody like that, who has been in the game a long time, has a lot of pride in what he does,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro, who’s coaching against his old team for the first time this week. “He has handled himself tremendously well through this streak. So it feels really good for him.”

Fermin agreed. He credited Lyles’ command of the game plan, noting that the KC battery-mates found a groove and stuck with it.

“Jordan has pretty good pitches, and the sweeper is one of the good ones,” Fermin said. “It was working really good and ... he was executing the pitches. That was the key today.”

The Royals have won two games during this weekend series. They have a chance to win the series outright on Sunday.

Lyles is excited about the opportunity. He mentioned that the Royals can learn a lot from a competitive set of games against the MLB-leading Rays.

“It’s just a little more validation if we can get a series win against a good team,” he said. “(The Rays) are going to be in the playoffs.”

Lyles noted these games are especially important for his younger teammates.

“So, to get their eyes on a playoff-caliber team and go toe-to-toe with them, I think helps guys prepare and get ready for the next game, next series, the next season,” Lyles said. “Just to have a little bit more knowledge and experience against good teams.”

Daniel Lynch is next up in the Royals’ pitching rotation and will start Sunday’s series finale against the Rays’ Tyler Glasnow.