The Royals’ 5-game winning streak is one thing. How they’re winning is quite another

The narrative will cover the final pitch Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium, so this is going to cover the much of the initial 322.

Eventually.

The last one first: Salvador Perez redirected a 90 mph cutter into left-center field, an extra-inning walk-off to extend the Royals’ winning streak to five with a 4-3 victory over the Astros.

The Royals are 7-4, and a year ago, even if they don’t want to talk about a year ago anymore, they required 28 games to reach seven wins. The vibes, as Bobby Witt Jr. would later say through a thumping soundtrack in the clubhouse, are great.

Better yet: “This team’s got fight,” first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “And that’s fun to say.”

Picking up the seventh win of a 162-game season, though, isn’t really a headline.

But how? For this team? You bet.

The record itself ought to be encouraging enough — small sample size of that 162-game season be damned — but the manner in which the last two wins have arrived showed some signs that this might be a more enjoyable summer than the last several.

The Royals had every reason to lose a baseball game Tuesday night. They trailed 3-0 into the fifth against a team that has played in October seven straight years.

Kansas City’s ace, lefty Cole Ragans, did not have his best stuff, or maybe it was close to his best stuff but just came with the unfortunate timing of throwing to Yordan Alvarez. Either way, the Royals asked their bullpen to record 15 outs, and recording the final three has already been perhaps the biggest question of a young season.

Oh, and one more tiny detail: The Astros had a right-hander on the mound, Cristian Javier, who had not allowed a run all season.

So how did the Royals finally break loose for three runs in the fifth to tie the game? By not adjusting much of their game plan against him.

See, the Royals hit the ball a heck of a lot harder than their initial four zeroes would indicate. Backtrack to the third inning alone. Kyle Isbel hit a ground ball 92 miles per hour. Maikel Garcia hit a fly ball to left field that leaves 10 ballparks, according to Statcast. Witt followed with a blast to right field that leaves 22.

Out.

Out.

Out.

The reaction?

“We’re focusing on grinding these pitchers out and just having quality plate appearances and letting everything else take care of itself,” Pasquantino said. “I mean, I might not be swinging it the way I’m hoping for or the way this team is hoping for, but I’m in there every time fighting for the next pitch.

“That’s just what this team does.”

It’s a little early to place a broad-stroke present tense on that sentence. On the other hand, it’s just what this team did one game earlier.

In a series finale Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet didn’t allow a hit in the initial four innings. And yet after Hunter Renfroe broke through with a home run in the fifth, cutting the White Sox’s lead to one run, a Royals teammate thought out loud, “We’re going to win this game.”

You know what, though, this point actually predates Sunday too.

Take this example that caught the attention of a few in the organization: In the third inning last Thursday, the Royals basically gave the White Sox five outs. Witt booted a ground ball that loaded the bases with only one out.

There are these waiting-for-it-to-fall-apart moments in most baseball games, and man if the Royals weren’t quick to jump at the opportunity to do just that last year.

Here? Yoan Moncada laced a ball up the middle — squared it up and hit it 102 miles per hour with an expected batting average of .470 — but Witt, one hitter after his error, dived up the middle, stepped on second and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.

That was that. The Royals cruised afterward.

That’s not a one-off. It’s a theme.

The Royals have erased three-run deficits in back-to-back games. They did it five times all of last year.

Over a five-game winning streak, the Royals have followed their lowest moments with a proverbial shoulder shrug.

Even with a roster infused last winter with clearly better talent, that was always going to be a hurdle, right? The internal expectations.

Well, maybe.

“We’ve talked about that quite a bit,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Especially the new guys that come in and said, ‘Last year is completely irrelevant. We’re here to win. This is our team now. We’re all part of of this together.’”

It’s early. We all get that.

But a year ago, it was over early.

Over a five-game streak? That’s just the point. It’s never been over.