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KANSAS CITY Anthony Munoz Jersey , Mo. — These are fun times for the defending World Series champion Houston Astros and trying times for the Kansas City Royals.

The Astros will seek their 11th straight victory Sunday when they close out a three-game series in Kansas City. It will conclude a 10-game Astros road trip in which they have won the first nine, making it the most successful 10-game trip in franchise history. Their previous best was 8-2 last year. They have scored at least six runs in six consecutive games.

“We’re having a good time right now, obviously, we’re in a good stretch,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “And you have to enjoy the ups because there are a lot of times during the season where it can get frustrating.”

Dallas Keuchel picked up his first victory since May 13, allowing two unearned runs over six innings, while Max Stassi and Alex Bregman belted three-run homers as the Astros routed the Royals 10-2 on Saturday.

It has been an exasperating season for the Royals, who have lost five straight and 11 of 12. They are 2-12 in June, scoring 28 runs in 14 games. They fell to 10-25 at home.

They’ve also lost starting right fielder Jorge Soler for at least six weeks, probably longer, with a fractured left big toe.

“He had a CT scan that showed the crack isn’t big enough to warrant surgery right now,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “We’ll check again in 10 days to see how it’s doing.

“He was very disappointed, very upset last night. I’ve never seen him that upset, a lot of words in numerous languages coming out of his mouth. He knew something was wrong. He was putting together a really, really good, solid year where he’s getting a chance to play every day and was doing some nice things.”

With the Royals’ Triple-A Omaha club playing Friday night in Tacoma Boomer Esiason Jersey , Wash., plus the two-hour time change, they did not have time to get a body to Kansas City for an afternoon game. They will announce Soler’s roster replacement Sunday.

“We’re not the Enterprise, you can’t beam them up,” Yost said.

Meanwhile, first baseman Lucas Duda will join the Storm Chasers on Sunday in Reno to begin a minor league rehab assignment. Duda hit .256 with four home runs and 19 RBIs in 37 games before going on the disabled list May 14 with right foot plantar fasciitis.

Rookie right-hander Brad Keller will make his fourth career start and 25th appearance in the series finale. Keller, who is a Rule 5 draft pick from the Arizona Diamondbacks, is 1-2 with a 2.31 ERA.

Keller is coming off his longest major league start, going 5 1/3 innings in a no-decision last Sunday in Oakland against the A’s. He allowed two runs on five hits.

He has limited opposing hitters to 30 hits, while walking 13 and striking out 23 over 35 innings.

Keller will face the Astros for the first time. Two of his three starts have been against American League West opponents, posting a 2.79 ERA over 9 2/3 innings.

He ranks fourth among AL rookie pitchers with 24 appearances and an opponents’ batting average of .231.

He was primarily a starter in the minors. In 106 appearances, he made 100 starts, including the last 50, but had not pitched above Double-A before this year.

The Astros will counter with right-hander Lance McCullers, who is 8-3 with a 3.83 ERA in 14 starts. He has yielded 66 hits and 35 earned runs over 82 1/3 innings with 32 walks and 81 strikeouts.

McCullers, who has a career 27-19 record with a 3.64 ERA Vontaze Burfict Jersey , is 1-0 with a 2.14 ERA in three career starts against the Royals. He had a 2.57 ERA in two no-decisions starts last season against Kansas City, allowing four runs on eight hits over 14 innings, while striking out 18 and walking two.

Salvador Perez has two hits, both home runs, in six at-bats against McCullers.

Drop into just about any bank or supermarket or sports bar in the Kansas City metro area these days and there’s a good chance you’ll see one of several photographs from just a few years ago hanging on a wall.

It might be Yordano Ventura unleashing a fastball. Or Eric Hosmer sliding into home at Citi Field in New York. Or Wade Davis with his arms thrust high into the air, his blazing fastball having just closed out Game 5 of the World Series and making the Kansas City Royals the world champions.

More than likely, you’ll find the now-iconic photograph of Union Station, where an estimated 400,000 people turned out to celebrate the club’s first title in three decades.

Those photos are reminders of better times. And how quickly things can change.

The Royals, who were indeed baseball royalty in 2015, are now neck and neck with the Orioles for the worst record in baseball. They’ve traded off their star closer, their best players are struggling and the prospects that might one day raise them from the abyss are years away from joining the club.

”The record is what it is. The hitting is what it is. The pitching is what it is,” said Royals manager Ned Yost, who presided over the rebuild that led to back-to-back World Series appearances. ”I have to continue to lead. We have to make sure this year has not been a waste.”

How did things fall apart so quickly?

To start, the Royals doled out big contracts to players that have not produced. Left fielder Alex Gordon consumes 14 percent of the payroll in the third year of a $72 million, four-year deal Tyler Eifert Jersey , but he’s hitting just .247 with five homers and 15 RBIs. Right-hander Ian Kennedy consumes 11 percent of the payroll in the third year of a $70 million, five-year deal, and he’s 1-8 with a 5.11 ERA.

The few stars that remain on the roster have likewise struggled to produce.

Salvador Perez likely will see his streak of five straight All-Star games end. The catcher, in the third year of a $52 million, six-year deal, is hitting .255 with 11 homers and 33 RBIs.

Good luck winning many games that way.

The Royals were 25-61 heading into their off day Thursday and had lost 24 of their last 28 games. They needed to go 38-38 the rest of the way just to avoid the ignominy of 100 losses.

Making things worse: The Royals are losing that many games with a payroll of about $144 million.

Another reason for the precipitous slide was year after year of poor drafts. Only one of their 13 first-round picks since 2010 is currently on the 25-man roster; Hunter Dozier is hitting .223 in 44 games as he struggles to lock down an everyday job.

”As a young guy you know you’re going to fail, and in some ways we want you to fail because that’s how you’re going to get better,” said Yost, who is going through the same slow learning process with infielder and erstwhile top prospect Adalberto Mondesi.

The son of longtime big leaguer Raul Mondesi, he is hitting .214 in 42 at-bats this season.

”We also don’t want to heap too much on their shoulders,” Yost said, ”so it’s balancing act.”

Maybe that’s why the Royals have been slow to gut their roster in favor of a complete rebuild, even if that appears to be coming. They’ve already traded utility outfielder Jon Jay to the Diamondbacks and star closer Kelvin Herrera to the Nationals, getting five prospects in return that the Royals hope will help restock a farm system that remains one of the worst in baseball.

More moves could be coming, too. The Royals are hopeful of trading third baseman Mike Moustakas, who signed a one-year deal when no long-term offers materialized last offseason. Versatile infielder Whit Merrifield could land a few solid prospects Giovani Bernard Jersey , and left-hander Danny Duffy and even Perez could be made available, though both have torpedoed their value with poor seasons.

The combination of an old and bad team has been made even worse by the fact that the Royals are, well, pretty boring. They don’t hit an abundance of homers. Their starting rotation includes the first two pitchers to hit 10 losses in the majors. There are no young stars yet worth watching.

As a result, the Royals are drawing an average of 20,283 fans to Kauffman Stadium. That’s a drop of more than 7,000 from last season and more than 13,000 from their championship season.

Still, for all the gloom, the typically irascible Yost has taken a decidedly optimistic approach to this season. He’s been through these long and painful rebuilds and come out the other side.

It takes patience. It takes smart moves. It takes more patience.

”There’s a lot of things to look at that you’re happy with, even though the record is what it is,” he said. ”There is progress that you’re going to see on the back end, in the light, just as we did in 2013 and 2014, when we turned the corner the last time.”

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