After a promising start to the month of June where the Royals won six of their first eight games, they felt gravity's pull and came flying back to Earth. They've lost five of their last six and close the month with a 13-14 record.

They secured that under .500 finish for the month on Tuesday with another ugly defeat, 10-4 at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays. It was one of those games where the stadium began to empty around the sixth inning. The Royals issued a season-high 11 walks. It's tough to convince paying customers to stay when all you offer up are the same stale reruns.

While most of the game was dreck, the start made for fun times. However fleeting it was. After all these years, I still love a good Esky Ambush.

First pitch of the game from Griffin Jax and Royals leadoff hitter Carter Jensen was sitting dead red. And that's about as prime, center-cut as they come. An absolute tank. As the sign insists, Jensen did swing into full flavor.

I love that while the game changes, some of the most basic principles remain intact. Pitchers try to establish themselves from the jump. Hitters often take that first pitch because they don't want to swing and make an immediate out. They want to make a starter work. But sometimes, the best pitch you get in a PA is the first. So why not swing? Roll the dice. Especially when you're on a 19-game heater like Jensen is. The hitting streak is now 20.

Bobby Witt Jr. did Bobby Witt Jr. things and added two home runs of his own. Between the top two hitters in the lineup, they accounted for all four runs.

Good to see Witt swinging that kind of bat. He's not stealing bases at the moment with that knee, so why not take a leisurely stroll around the park? He can work on the power numbers his 30/30 pursuit.

Yep...Jensen and Witt—along with Jac Caglianone, although he's cooled off considerably over the last week or so—are pretty much the only reason to tune into the games these days. In fact, since Caglianone's three hit game in St. Petersburg—after which I declared his breakout season on—he's gone 1-19 with just one walk and nine strikeouts. My power is absolute.

Noah Cameron just didn't have it on Tuesday. Everything about his start was off. He couldn't command his pitches and his velocity was down across the board. All three of his fastball offerings—four-seam, cutter and sinker—were down a tick or more on average. Manager Matt Quatraro said postgame that he thought that Cameron found some of that velocity later his outing and while that was kind of the case, it wasn't enough to push his averages back in line.

Coming off a strong rookie campaign, Cameron was always a regression candidate. He scuffled a bit in April before he missed a start with back tightness. When he returned, he put together a few more solid outings before this most recent stretch. He's now given up 18 earned runs over his last four starts. It's a stretch that spans 18 innings. In Tuesday's start, he walked three and did not record a strikeout and, with eight of the 18 balls in play against Cameron coming off the bat at 95 mph or higher, the Rays were on the pitches they offered at. It was a rough outing.

Another night, another dumpster fire from the bullpen with a seemingly handcuffed manager. After Cameron exited, the first reliever up was newcomer Connor Seabold. He drilled the first batter he faced with the first pitch he threw. Immediately after, Seabold seemed to rub his fingers together as if he wasn't able to get a decent grip on the baseball. He got a ground ball to get out of the inning.

In his next inning of action, after getting the first out, he walked Williamson on four consecutive pitches. A few pitches later, he was out of the game with a lat strain. Because why not? Going back and watching again, it looked like he was having difficulty getting properly loose in that inning. Something was clearly bothering him. After getting to 3-2 on Walls, a wild pickoff throw to first was his final throw of the evening.

Here we go again...Another game, another instance where the bullpen is going to be used early and often.

Quatraro summoned Eric Cerantola from the bullpen. Cerantola's first pitch was up and out of the zone for ball four that was charged to Seabold. The next pitch was close to the zone, but Jensen whiffed on it for a passed ball. God, this is just depressing. His next pitch was a single passed a drawn-in infield that scored both runners to extend the lead to 8-3. The only positive I can draw from this point in the game was that the Rays were intent on running into outs on the bases like nincompoops. (Hello, TOOTBLANs!)

In his next inning of action, Cerantola completely lost the zone. Like Seabold before him, Cerantola spent some time wiping his pitching hand like he couldn't get a grip on the baseball. He walked Jonathan Aranda to open the inning and got Junior Caminero to ground into a double play. He then delivered five consecutive walks. He also added a wild pitch, because why not? This was his spray chart from his outing:

What an complete mess. This is what it looks like when a pitcher uncorks six walks over 1.1 innings. The slider was up and everywhere. The cutter was up and down and everywhere. Who knows what was going on with the four-seamer.

Did Quatraro stick with Cerantola for too long? At this point, whatever pitching plans the Royals may have had for this series had gone up in smoke. Cerantola was getting booed by the home crowd. Those who weren't booing were fleeing for the exits. It was ugly and brutal to watch. Having to stick with him for so long was a reminder that there's a distinct lack of quality in the bullpen these days. Pitching coach Brian Sweeney came out after his third walk in a row, but it didn't matter. Beck Way had to come in to shut things down and get the final out.

I still can't get worked up over managerial decisions when the Injured List is fully stocked and the talent on the field and in the bullpen just isn't good enough to compete on a nightly basis.

As noted, the Royals issued a total of 11 walks which was the most free passes they've issued this year. It was the 26th time in franchise history they've surrendered 11 walks or more in a game. Sometimes, they win those games. Ah, who am I trying to kid? They are 3-23 in games where their pitchers completely lose the strike zone. So by the time Cerantola exited the game, the result was all but assured.

Central Issues

Tigers 9

Yankees 3

The pitching matchup of the year between Cam Schlittler and Tarik Skubal failed to materialize as the Tigers jumped all over the Yankees starter, hitting three home runs in the first as Kerry Carpenter, Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson all went deep with two outs. Skubal held up his end of the bargain, though, going six innings and allowing just one hit—a home run to Ben Rice in the bottom of the first—while striking out nine.

If you watch highlights from this game, you'll see how close Yankees center fielder Spencer Jones was to robbing Carpenter's home run. It hit low in his glove, but his momentum going back meant the ball rolled up and out of the webbing and into the bullpen. That's how close Schlittler was to pitching a clean first inning. Baseball, man.

White Sox 9
Orioles 3

The game was tied at one after two innings and then the White Sox got serious. They plated seven runs in the third before making an out, with Colson Montgomery and Junior Perez both going deep. The Sox chased Baltimore starter Trey Gibson after 2.2 innings where he allowed eight runs on seven hits and six walks. Was he auditioning for the Royals? Chicago reliever Tyler Schweitzer pitched the final four innings to pick up the save.

Rangers 4
Guardians 2

Rangers starter Jacob DeGrom served up a two-run home run to Kyle Manzardo in the first (first inning home runs were something of a theme last night) before he settled down to finish seven innings with nine strikeouts. He didn't allow another run after the first. Texas tied the game in the third on a Joc Pederson home run then took the lead in the seventh after rookie left fielder Cooper Ingle forgot how many outs there were in the inning and tossed a live baseball into the stands. Oops. It goes down as an error on Ingle, but he made a nice throw to that fan.

Twins 4
Astros 6

The Twins jumped out to an early three-run lead, but the Astros rallied for all six of their runs in the fourth inning, capped by a Yordan Alvarez grand slam. It was Alvarez's 26th bomb of the year. Houston's bullpen closed out the game with four hitless innings.

That's the Royals at 16 games under .500 which matches their nadir on the season. Something tells me they will drop even further in the weeks ahead.