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Brad Keller has never given Royals manager Ned Yost a reason to question his confidence.

Not when the young right-hander walked into the clubhouse in spring training Authentic Daniel Sedin Jersey , freshly acquired from Arizona in the Rule 5 draft. Not when he was thrown into the bullpen after spending most of his career as a starter. And not when Yost moved him back to the rotation in the big leagues.

So when Keller stared down the Los Angeles Angels‘ potent lineup, and held Mike Trout and Co. to two hits over seven innings, the skipper may have one of the few people in the ballpark unsurprised.

”He was never wide-eyed. Never overwhelmed in any situation we put him in,” Yost marveled after the 22-year-old Keller pitched the Royals to a 2-0 win Monday in the makeup of a game frozen out in April.

Keller (2-2) struck out six and walked two in his fifth career major league start. Nobody reached second on him, one of his two baserunners was wiped out by a double play, and he gamely retired the side in order in the seventh, when his pitch count eclipsed 100 for the first time this season.

”I definitely feel more comfortable with every start,” Keller said. ”Just try not to let the moment get too big, especially up here. Things tend to snowball up here.”

His bullpen made the outstanding start stand up, too.

Kevin McCarthy struck out Chris Young and retired Ian Kinsler to strand a runner on third base in the eighth, and Wily Peralta finished the three-hitter by working around Albert Pujols’ single in the ninth.

It was the first save for the longtime starter in 136 career big league games.

”In a game like this, you’re not going to hang your hat on one situation. We just didn’t do enough offensively,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ”On the offensive side it was a tough day for us.”

The Royals scored the only run they needed off Tyler Skaggs (6-5) in the fourth. Duda, who is known primarily for his power, managed to dribble a single through the infield, driving in Hunter Dozier after he reached on a leadoff double on a mild, sun-splashed afternoon.

Herrera added an RBI single, his career-high third hit of the game, in the eighth inning.

Skaggs, who was scratched from his start last week with right hamstring tightness, allowed seven hits and walked two in seven innings. He struck out eight for the third straight start.

”It’s difficult. A quick turnaround,” Skaggs said. ”A day game yesterday, fly here, kind of another day game – an afternoon game – and another game tomorrow. A lot of travelling and a tough schedule, but nobody’s feeling sorry for us.”

Indeed, both teams had to fly into Kansas City for the makeup game. The Angels kicked off a road trip that sends them to Boston and Baltimore, and the Royals stopped between series in Houston and Milwaukee.

Not that Yost’s bunch minds now. The Royals had lost nine in a row at Kauffman Stadium, and had been outscored 54-17 over the stretch, with their last win coming June 2 against Oakland.

Of their four wins overall in June, three have been shutouts.

JACKIE ROBINSON DAY

The Angels and Royals were supposed to wear No. 42 to celebrate Jackie Robinson when their game was frozen out on April 15. So Youth Josh Allen Jersey , everybody donned the iconic No. 42 jerseys Monday instead.

”When we were going to do it, it was like, what, 18 degrees here?” Scioscia said. ”The guys were really looking forward to it. We’re glad we get the chance.”

ESKY ALL OVER

The Royals’ Alcides Escobar started at third to give Mike Moustakas a day off. The club wants to give youngster Adalberto Mondesi a long look at shortstop, so Escobar has been moved around a bit. He started in center in Houston last Friday and has a majors-leading streak of 411 consecutive starts.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Angels: RHP Garrett Richards (left hamstring strain) threw off a mound, but Scioscia warned ”we’ll have to progress from there.” … INF Zack Cozart (left shoulder subluxation) began baseball activities but is still in the evaluation phase. … INF Jefry Marte (left wrist sprain) is also swinging now. ”We’ve got a whole team back in Southern California,” Scioscia deadpanned.

Royals: INF Cheslor Cuthbert remains sidelined with a lower back strain. ”He’s starting to feel a little better,” Yost said, but there is no timetable for his return.

UP NEXT

The Angels begin their scheduled road trip Tuesday night in Boston, where left-hander John Lamb (0-0, 5.40 ERA) starts in the opener of a three-game set. Kansas City returns to the road with right-hander Jakob Junis (5-8, 4.43 ERA) starting the first of two games in Milwaukee on Tuesday night.

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As they stagger toward the midpoint of their miserable 2018 baseball season, the Orioles own the worst record in the majors and are on pace to lose 100 games for only the third time since their move to Baltimore in 1954.

Worst of all, they never saw it coming.

After giving free agent Alex Cobb a four-year, $57 million contract and signing veteran right-hander Andrew Cashner, the Orioles figured they had a solid starting rotation to go with a power-laden lineup – a formula designed to produce the team’s fourth postseason berth in seven years under manager Buck Showalter.

”We had really high hopes, as most teams do, especially in spring training,” slugger Mark Trumbo said. ”Our offense was really firing, and we had both Cashner and Cobb coming into the fold to go with a similar group of guys from the last couple years.”

Nothing has gone according to plan. Entering Friday night’s game in Atlanta, the Orioles were 21-52 (10-29 on the road) and a whopping 29 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East. The last time a team has been at least 30 games behind at the end of June was 1979, when Toronto was looking way up at the Orioles.

”It’s kind of mind-boggling,” reliever Zach Britton said. ”It’s tough. We thought we’d be fighting for a playoff spot, and we’re not even halfway through and we’re already close to being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

”I can’t remember being in this type of situation here, maybe my first year in 2011 when we were pretty bad from the get-go. But I don’t even think it was this bad, and this roster has a lot of talent on it.”

Injuries have been a factor. Trumbo and Britton began the season on the disabled list, third baseman Tim Beckham has been sidelined since April 24 and 2017 All-Star second baseman Jonathan Schoop missed three weeks with an oblique strain. Outfielder Colby Rasmus languished on the 60-day disabled list before hitting a home run Thursday in his first action since April 6.

But the core of the problem has been, quite simply, poor performances by the vast majority of the team – most notably two-time AL home run champion Chris Davis, who’s in the third season of a seven-year Kenny Golladay Jersey , $161 million contract.

Davis is batting .150 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 57 games. He is slated to return to the lineup on Friday night following a hiatus of nearly two weeks during which he worked to get his mojo back.

But Davis isn’t the only underachiever. Schoop has a .209 batting average, starting catcher Caleb Joseph is at .172, Trey Mancini is hitting at a .220 clip (down from .293 as a rookie last year) and the collective batting average of .227 is tied for last in the big leagues with Arizona. Baltimore has been blanked eight times, and no team in the majors has scored fewer runs.

”I can’t remember having a team with so many guys who haven’t swung the bats as they have in the past, or the way they are expected to produce over the course of a full season,” Showalter said.

The best hitters on the team are Manny Machado (.304, 18 HRs, 53 RBIs) and Adam Jones (.292, 10, 31), both of whom are in the final year of their contracts and likely to be dealt before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

It would take exceptional pitching to offset Baltimore’s meager offensive output, and that hasn’t happened. Cobb is 2-9 with a 7.14 ERA, Cashner is 2-8 and Gausman (3-6) has gone seven straight starts without a victory.

”I’ve never been a part of a team like this,” Gausman said. ”Ever since I came up (in 2013), we’ve been a winning ball club and a contender. So, this is really weird.”

Seems as if there’s no option but to tear it down and start over, beginning with some heavy trading action before July 31.

”If you just run the same roster out there the whole year, you don’t do yourself any justice,” said the 30-year-old Britton, who’s in the final season of his contract and a likely trading chip. ”It’s unfortunate for some of the guys who are going to be affected by it, but it’s the nature of the beast. When you don’t play well, people get replaced by younger players.”

Showalter and vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette are also in the last year of their contracts, but situation likely won’t be addressed until the offseason.

Regardless, change is coming for a franchise still in search of its first World Series title since 1983.

”Sad to see it happen,” Gausman said. ”Obviously, I would love for us all to stay here and ride off into the sunset together. But at this point, that’s kind of unrealistic.”

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