Kansas City Royals at Toronto Blue Jays

The Royals capped a perfect homestand on Sunday and then took their winning ways on the road. Now they’re the hottest team in baseball. Their 5-3 win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night pushed the Royals’ win streak to nine games, marking the longest win streak in the Majors and Kansas City’s longest win streak since it went on a nine-game run from July 19-28, 2017. ​ Just like we’ve seen over the past week-plus, there were plenty of heroes Tuesday: Seth Lugo worked his way through five innings of one-run ball. Salvador Perez provided the go-ahead hit in the fifth inning, and the rest of the lineup stepped up for insurance runs later. Reliever Nate Pearson, facing the team that picked him in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft, worked out of a dicey situation to put together a scoreless inning. And the game-ending play was perhaps the most electric of the night, with Isaac Collins cutting off a two-out hit in the gap from Nathan Lukes and finding Bobby Witt Jr. for the relay throw to Tyler Tolbert to tag out Lukes trying to advance to second base. ​ Fundamental and team baseball has gotten the Royals to this point. Here are three other encouraging trends over the past nine games: **Pasquatch sighting** A lineup that included all of the Royals’ core hitters lasted just a few days last week before Maikel Garcia hit the injured list again. But the return of Vinnie Pasquantino should not be overlooked. Since coming off the IL on Aug. 17, Pasquantino has gone 11-for-29 (.379) with five walks, four doubles, two home runs and five RBIs – without a strikeout in eight games. He’s hitting the ball hard, he’s moving runners and bringing them in and he even followed in [Perez’s footsteps