KANSAS CITY -- As the Royals push forward in their rebuild, they know the one area that has to improve is their bullpen.

Kansas City¡¯s ¡®pen came into Wednesday night¡¯s series finale against the Braves sporting the second-worst ERA (5.04) in the American League to Baltimore¡¯s 5.68. And Royals relievers were front and center of a 10-2 loss to the Braves at Kauffman Stadium.

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In his final start of 2019, Royals left-hander Mike Montgomery labored, but he limited the damage. He gave up two runs over 4 2/3 innings -- both coming with two outs in the fifth.

After getting two quick outs in the fifth, Montgomery walked Ozzie Albies after getting ahead of him 0-2. Josh Donaldson then belted an RBI double to left-center. Nick Markakis followed with an RBI single to center, tying the score.

But right-hander Jacob Barnes, who got the final out of the fifth inning, gave up a single and two walks to load the bases in the sixth. One of the walks came to light-hitting Billy Hamilton. Right-hander Heath Fillmyer came on and gave up a two-run single to Dansby Swanson and a sacrifice fly to Albies, and the rout was on.

Barnes¡¯ ERA ballooned to 7.39.

¡°The walk to Hamilton,¡± Barnes said, ¡°that's just the one that's frustrating because that's a guy I should attack. I just kind of missed outside a couple times. That was the frustrating one for sure. Obviously, I put Filly in a tight spot when he came in. That was frustrating, walking Hamilton right there."

After Tim Hill pitched a scoreless seventh, right-hander Jesse Hahn gave up two hits, two walks and four runs in the eighth in one-third of an inning. Hahn, who is trying to come back from elbow repair surgery, now has a 13.50 ERA in his six outings.

¡°Obviously, it¡¯s a little frustrating,¡± Hahn said. ¡°I hate saying this, but it is like Spring Training for me. I have five or six innings under my belt. I¡¯m still dealing with timing, mechanics, rhythm. And sometimes I¡¯m fighting myself. When you do that and walk the leadoff guy, it just gets out of hand.

¡°I do feel like my stuff gets better with every outing. Even though my command wasn¡¯t great today I still have feel for my pitches a little bit better every outing. I¡¯ll get more comfortable. My arm feels great. It¡¯s just about going out there and competing.¡±

Kyle Zimmer, also making a comeback from several injuries, gave up a run in the ninth -- his ERA is 11.42.

Royals manager Ned Yost, who has said often that the team¡¯s pitching simply has to improve for them to compete again, maintains the talent is there.

¡°Our pitching needs to improve in terms of pitch execution,¡± Yost said. ¡°We make a lot of mistakes. We struggle to command down and away. Look, saying this is really easy. Doing this is really hard. It takes a lot of work to be able to do it. You have to be able to suppress offense, suppress power, by execution on pitches down and away. ¡­ We just make way too many mistakes."

And many of those mistakes come from Royals middle relievers, as they did against the Braves, turning a 2-2 game in the sixth into a rout.

"It doesn't matter where they come,¡± Yost said. ¡°They come. Nobody is going to be perfect, but you look at the elite pitchers in this league and they're elite for a reason, because they've got great stuff, but they can command. That's going to be something they're going to have to focus on going forward.¡±