WASHINGTON -- Bobby Witt Jr. stood in front of his locker back at Kauffman Stadium several times last week and insisted that all the Royals needed to snap out of their offensive funk was one break, one run, one spark to go their way.

It took until the 10th inning Tuesday night at Nationals Park, but the Royals might have gotten the spark they needed.

After a 27-inning scoreless drought and frustration -- or more like ¡°disbelief,¡± as manager Matt Quatraro called it -- that built throughout the series opener against the Nationals, the Royals managed to scratch one run across in the top of the 10th inning before Lucas Erceg closed it out for a 1-0 win in extras to kick off the final week of a regular season.

¡°Now we go,¡± Witt said, this time in front of his locker in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park, where the Royals could be popping champagne and celebrating their first postseason berth since 2015 as early as Thursday.

Witt continued: ¡°Like I keep saying, we didn¡¯t come this far to just come this far.¡±

Moments later, the Royals¡¯ shortstop stood in front of the TVs with several teammates to watch the end of the Twins¡¯ loss to the Marlins, which put the Royals (83-74) and Tigers (83-74) up two games over Minnesota, which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Kansas City, for the second and third AL Wild Card spots. The Royals hold the tiebreaker over Detroit after winning the season series, 7-6.

There are five games left in the regular season, and the Royals need every win they can get, no matter how it comes. Even if that means one unearned run in the 10th inning due to Witt¡¯s infield hit forcing an errant throw by Nationals shortstop Nasim Nu?ez, which scored automatic runner Kyle Isbel from second.

¡°We just got to figure out a way to dig deep,¡± Witt said. ¡°This is what we prepared for back in Spring Training. When we came to Spring Training, if anyone said we¡¯d be in this situation, we¡¯d all sign up for that. So we¡¯re here in this moment now. And we¡¯ve got to make the most of it.¡±

The Royals have been in an offensive funk lately, and that¡¯s putting it lightly, leading to their second seven-game losing streak in the last month. Entering Tuesday, Kansas City had scored just 13 runs in those seven losses and four runs in their last five games. They hadn¡¯t led since the first inning Wednesday. By the end of nine innings Tuesday, they hadn¡¯t scored since the ninth inning Friday -- 27 long, perplexing, frustrating innings.

¡°Everybody knows what¡¯s at stake. Everybody wants to be the guy who gets the hit,¡± general manager J.J. Picollo said pregame Tuesday. ¡°But it can flip. We¡¯ve seen that happen before.¡±

Picollo stressed that he was confident in the position players on the current roster in flipping their fortunes despite several hitters mired in slumps at the plate.

¡°We¡¯re in this position because of who¡¯s in that clubhouse,¡± Picollo said. ¡°And if we had an injury, we feel good about our depth. We¡¯d call somebody up. But when we get this done, we¡¯re going to get it done with the guys in this clubhouse. That¡¯s how we got here.¡±

In the first inning off Nationals starter Mitchell Parker, the Royals loaded the bases with no outs, only for Yuli Gurriel to hit into a line drive double play -- 105.7 mph off the bat. The Royals loaded the bases again in the third to no avail. They brought in Dairon Blanco to pinch-run in the sixth inning with one out just to try to ¡°make something happen,¡± Quatraro said, only for Blanco to steal second and then get caught trying to steal third.

The Royals left 11 runners on base against the Nationals, going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

¡°Tonight it was more of, like, disbelief,¡± Quatraro said. ¡°We¡¯re too good of a team to have that continue for a long period of time. ¡­ I think tonight it was some frustration, but more like, ¡®This is going to change.¡¯¡±

That made Kansas City lucky to have the pitching it did against Washington for 10 shutout innings. Starter Cole Ragans worked around three walks and shaky command for six scoreless frames before relievers Kris Bubic, Sam Long, Angel Zerpa and Erceg followed suit behind him.

¡°We know what¡¯s at stake at this point,¡± Long said. ¡°You¡¯re not in that position unless everyone trusts you to get it done. It¡¯s a fun spot to be in, and everyone wants to be the one who steps up.

¡°We got back in the win column, and everyone can take a deep breath. There are good vibes. We have to carry that into [Wednesday] and the rest of the week.¡±