KANSAS CITY ¨C Through three innings Wednesday night, Royals starter Michael Lorenzen was not at his best. Things felt off, and the Angels were making him work by seeing 55 pitches in those three innings.

¡°I was kind of spraying the ball all over the place, and getting frustrated with myself,¡± Lorenzen said.

Something flipped after the third, though, and Lorenzen ended up spinning his best start since becoming a Royal last month, throwing seven shutout innings and leading the Royals to a 3-0 win over the Angels at Kauffman Stadium.

Lorenzen felt the rhythm and tempo of his delivery was off from the start of Wednesday¡¯s game, causing him to miss his spots and work deep counts. He had two walks, hit a batter and had to work around traffic the first three innings.

After the third, he allowed one runner to reach base.

¡°I was rushing through a lot of stuff, and instead of hitting the panic button, you¡¯re trying to figure out how to problem-solve out there and figure out exactly what¡¯s off,¡± Lorenzen said. ¡°I felt like I was able to figure it out and slow things down, slowed my rhythm down a little bit, and my body synced up better and I was able to make better pitches.¡±

Lorenzen ended up needing 95 pitches through seven innings and relied heavily on his fastball-sinker-changeup combination. His sweeper continues to get better as he works its execution, and the Angels whiffed four times on six swings against it.

¡°You try to slow the game down in between innings and really try and figure out where your misses are,¡± Lorenzen said. ¡°Why are those misses happening? And what¡¯s the solution to that?

¡°... That¡¯s why you work, and that¡¯s why you endlessly watch video and you¡¯re doing all the work in between starts so you can adapt when you need to adapt and just compete.¡±

The Royals took care of business this week with a series win over the Angels and head into Thursday¡¯s off-day looking to rejuvenate before a gauntlet of a schedule awaits them down the stretch.

Starting Friday against the Phillies, the next 20 games the Royals will play will be against teams that currently hold a playoff spot. The Royals sit in a good spot heading into that stretch, tied for second with the Twins (who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker) in the American League Central ¨C just 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Guardians, whom the Royals play early next week.

Kansas City has a solid hold for the third spot in the AL Wild Card, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox.

But this next stretch will test the Royals yet again. With October baseball now closer than ever, they feel ready.

Their rotation is in a good spot. The offense did just enough Wednesday against Angels starter Johnny Cueto, making his season debut against the team he helped win a World Series title back in 2015. The Royals hammered Cueto, averaging a 95.5 mph exit velocity off him, although not many turned into hits. They were able to scratch across two in the second with Kyle Isbel¡¯s two-run double, and MJ Melendez added a third run in the sixth with a homer off the right-field foul pole.

¡°We¡¯ve just got to keep doing what we do,¡± Melendez said. ¡°Do the little things right. ¡­ We¡¯ve been doing it all year long. Really just because we¡¯re in a playoff push right now, we don¡¯t have to change anything from what we¡¯ve been doing all season long.¡±

And it doesn¡¯t hurt to have AL MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. leading the way offensively. On Wednesday, Witt laced a 113 mph double ¨C his 200th career extra-base hit ¨C down the left-field line to give him a 10-game hit streak. That¡¯s his fifth such streak of the season, making him the only Royal in history to have five hit streaks of at least 10 games in one season and the first player for any team to do so since Charlie Blackmon and Dustin Pedroia in 2016.

¡°You play the game to get to the postseason, to win championships,¡± Melendez said. ¡°That¡¯s what we want to do. In Kansas City, they¡¯re used to that. Did it back in ¡®15. [The Chiefs] are doing it on the other side of the street. That¡¯s what we want to bring here. We want to be able to repeat every year trying to be a playoff team and make that a thing here in Kansas City.¡±