Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City Royals bumbled through August, with poor pitching, weak hitting, and even botched popups turning another disappointing season downright ugly.

Then came September.

The pitching got better, the bats produced hits and runs in bunches, and the wins started piling up. The monthlong run wasn’t enough to make up for the disappointment of the 14th losing season in 15 years. Losing always hurts, even when you’ve done it as much as the Royals.

What it did do, though, is provide something that’s been missing in Kansas City for a long time: hope.

“Certainly, with the way we finished, I think we had more highs than lows,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said Tuesday.

The Royals started off great in Hillman’s first season, winning six of their first eight games. Then came a seven-game losing streak in April, followed by a 12-game slide in May that snuffed out hope of playoff contention.

That led to another August with nothing to play for, and the Royals acted like it, losing 18 of 21 games, the lowlight coming in a 3-2 loss to Texas on the 27th, when pitcher Brian Bannister flubbed a routine popup to allow the go-ahead run to score, dropping Kansas City to a season-worst 21 games under .500.

Somehow, the Royals bounced back, opening September with a 5-4 victory over Oakland, and finishing it 18-8, their best month since opening the 2003 season 17-7.

Normally, a last-place team making a run the final month of the season doesn’t mean much.

September is when teams out of the playoff hunt pack it in, when rosters are filled with callups getting their first look at the big leagues or career minor leaguers hoping to make an impression. Performing well in September doesn’t always mean it’s going to happen next season; the numbers are skewed too much.

Still, give the Royals some credit.

While most of its September victories came against Oakland, Cleveland and Seattle, teams that didn’t have much left to play for, Kansas City also won two of three at Minnesota the final weekend, forcing the Twins into Tuesday’s one-game playoff with the Chicago White Sox.

The Royals (75-87) finished with six more victories than last season, moved out of last place in the AL Central for the first time in five years and cut their deficit in the division to 13 games after being 27 back at the end of 2007.

They can’t help but feel like things are going to change.

“We had a couple bad stretches and got ourselves into too big of a hole,” right-hander Gil Meche said. “Everybody feels pretty good with the way we’re finishing, and I think everybody is realizing we’re really not that far.”

Those bad stretches were tough to take, though.

Kansas City had three losing streaks of at least seven games and lacked power all season, finishing next to last in the AL with 120 homers. Right-hander Brian Bannister seemed to lose some of the steam he generated last year.