"It might all be falling apart now for the Royals.

When Joakim Soria blows a late lead by giving up a three-run homer to Luis Valbuena, as happened Monday night in a 10-6 loss to Cleveland … well, sheesh, how much worse can things get?

"It's been that way repeatedly," manager Trey Hillman said. "Sometimes, it's been defense. More often than not since the break, it's been when we've gone to the bullpen. Hasn't mattered. You know? Hasn't mattered.

"We've tried to mix and match, utilize numbers. Unfortunately, more often than not, we've been nonproductive out of the bullpen. It's a difficult reminder that just when you think you've seen it all, you haven't seen it all."

The question arises as to whether Soria was ready when he inherited a 5-4 lead upon replacing Gil Meche to start the eighth inning. Soria warmed up in a hurry after the Royals scored in the seventh.

The Royals even engaged in a little pantomime to start the eighth by having Meche take the mound while Soria made a few more throws in the bullpen.

"I was ready," Soria insisted. "I just left a fastball right in the middle, and he crushed the ball. That's it. It was a bad night."

Hillman was equally adamant that Soria was ready.

"No doubt about it," Hillman said. "Otherwise, I would've let Gil stand out there for a few minutes and let the first hitter get his toe hole."

Soria opened the inning by retiring Shin-Soo Choo on a grounder to short, but Jhonny Peralta followed with a single up the middle. Travis Hafner then beat an infield overshift with a slow grounder to the left side for a single.

"He was throwing 95 (mph)," catcher John Buck said. "He threw a really good pitch to Hafner. That's a double play."

Not with the infield overshifted to the right.

"I made a good pitch to Peralta, a fastball on the black," Soria said. "I made a good pitch to Hafner, and he got a hit. There's nothing you can do about that. I just made a bad pitch (to Valbuena), and he hit it well. I don't know what else to say."

Valbuena pumped a 1-1 fastball over the right-field wall, and the Indians led 7-5.

"I know he's a tough guy on the mound," Valbuena said, with first-base coach Luis Rivera acting as interpreter. "But I don't dwell on who is pitching; I just concentrate on what the guy is going to throw."

The blown save was just Soria's third of the season in 23 chances. He also suffered his second loss in four games and fell to 3-2.

Just to be sure, after the Royals scored once in their eighth, Jamey Wright and John Bale combined to give up three more runs in the ninth inning. And that leads us to the daily tally of painful math:

The Royals, 47-77, have lost five in a row and now find themselves eight games behind fourth-place Cleveland, 55-69, in the five-team American League Central. They have 38 games remaining, so anything worse than a 16-22 run to close the season means 100 losses or more for the"