After Waiting So Long, Royals May Run Out of Time Orlin Wagner/Associated Press Salvador Perez hit a single during the eighth inning against the Cleveland Indians on Monday. KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Salvador Perez was 16 years old and living in Venezuela when he signed with the Kansas City Royals for $65,000 in 2006. He knew the Royals played major league baseball, he said Monday, but not much else. That was probably for the best. "I feel so happy when I signed," Perez said by his locker at Kauffman Stadium. But after that, we have to go through some process to make it. Process has been the buzzword here for years, a plea from the front office to a restless fan base. The Royals have gone longer without a postseason appearance than any other team in the four major American professional sports, a drought that stretches to their victory in the 1985 World Series. Trust the process, the team has said, and at last, the results are showing. The Royals are fighting for one of the American League's two wild-card spots, and Monday they thumped the Cleveland Indians, 7-1, to move within two and a half games. The Indians are one of the teams ahead of Kansas City in the chase, and Perez, a catcher, squatted behind them for 17 strikeouts, a record for Royals pitchers in a nine-inning game. "This is what baseball's all about," said starter James Shields, who fanned 10 in six innings. This is where we want to be. We can pull it off, absolutely. We've just got to keep winning games. The crowd was enthusiastic Monday - one man reveled in jiggling his supersize gut for the cameras - but just 15,413 fans showed up under threatening skies. The Royals are averaging only 21,336 per game, down a bit from last season, when they hosted the All-Star Game. They have not averaged 25,000 since 1991. Dayton Moore, the general manager, grew up here in the glory years of the 1970s and 1980s, rooting for the Royals. He has built a roster with emerging stars who may stick around, and said fans had started to identify with Perez, Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and others. "To me, that's huge as we grow our organization - you grow new fans," Moore said. One of the frustrating things with this fan base, simply, is this: You have parents and grandparents who grew up loving the Royals because they always won. And then they had kids and grandkids, and they grew up liking the Red Sox and the Yankees and the Phillies and the Braves because those are the teams that were winning. It created frustration in the community, and Kansas City is a very proud community. A lot of people come back here to live; it's a nice quality of life. People want to be able to root for the Royals. Finally, they have a compelling reason. The Royals have come alive since the All-Star Game break, with a 36-22 record through Monday that was tied with Detroit for the best in the American League. The right to play important games in mid-September has validated the latest rebuilding effort. Several attempts failed before Moore arrived, and his has taken seven years to blossom. Many of the players have come through the farm system together, striving for games like these. "It's pretty cool seeing the front office, your minor league directors and farm directors, come in and watch the games when we're still in it and still have a chance in September," said Hosmer, a first baseman hitting .302. We know all the work we've done to get to this point, and this is the final project up here. We've got a lot of guys that have put together some good seasons, and we're heading in the right direction. The Royals may run out of time in their playoff push; the field is crowded, with the Indians, the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles also pursuing the fading Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers for the wild-card spots. But if they make it, the Royals could be tough to knock out. They would have momentum, and they do a few things very well. The Royals are a team of extremes. They rank first in the league in stolen bases and their hitters have the fewest strikeouts - but also the fewest home runs. Their pitching staff has the best earned run average in the league, at 3.49, and a sturdy, rebuilt rotation has kept the bullpen rested and dominant. Only Atlanta's relievers have a better E.R.A. than the Royals" 2.54. "I feel like we pitch better than anybody in the league," said Butler, the veteran designated hitter. We've got some really good starting pitching, and we've hit really well in the second half. We're a tough combination right now to come in and beat for three games.