From 1995 to 2012, the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates combined for a grand total of one winning season. That's one winning season out of 36, the Royals somehow sneaking in 83 wins in 2003 and then following that up with seasons of 104, 106 and 100 losses. The two teams were the laughingstocks of baseball, symbolic of the belief that small-market teams couldn't compete with the big boys.

Or maybe they were just poorly-run franchises. But that's a story for another day. It's a new era; now they're two of the best teams in baseball and this week's series is viewed as a potential World Series preview. The Pirates won the opener on Monday and sent ace Gerrit Cole to the mound on Tuesday against Jason Vargas, who was making his first start since June 8 following a one-game minor league rehab assignment after suffering a flexor strain in his elbow.

Unfortunately, Vargas left in the second inning with more elbow pain. The video doesn't look good. The Royals, of course, have a great bullpen, but asking the pen to go seven-plus innings to beat Cole was a tall order.

But these aren't the 2005 Royals. These are the 2015 Royals and they win these games. They battle, they punch, they play Royals baseball, and if you give them an opening, they'll beat you. Joe Blanton, former retired pitcher no longer retired, entered in the second with runners on first and third, one out, and a 3-1 count on Brent Morel. Against a pitcher like Cole, he of the 13-3 record and 2.30 ERA, the Royals needed a stop. Blanton struck out Morel and then struck out Chris Stewart and tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings, bridging the game to the fearsome foursome of Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland.

The Royals finally broke through against Cole in the eighth thanks to some shoddy Pirates defense. With one out, Omar Infante reached on Neil Walker's error. Alex Rios singled to center and Andrew McCutchen's ill-advised throw allowed Rios to advance to second. That forced the Pirates to bring the infield in. Cole was at 105 pitches, but this was his game. His first pitch to Jarrod Dyson was 98 mph at the knees. He overthrew a slider for a ball. His 108th pitch was 97 mph, up at the top of the strike zone. The past two seasons, Dyson is hitting .424 on fastballs in the upper third of the zone. That's the pitch he likes. He lofted a soft liner to right field, with Rios easily scoring when Gregory Polanco dropped the ball as he wound up to throw home.

Oh, that allowed Dyson to go to second. He stole third and scored on Alcides Escobar's single. Royals baseball.

For the Pirates, defense has been an ongoing issue. As my friend David Todd of 970 ESPN Radio in Pittsburgh tweeted, "Started saying this 2 months ago. The #Pirates defense is awful. One good defender-Marte." The metrics from Baseball Info Solutions back that up. Maybe not awful, but not what we've seen from them the past couple seasons. They were at minus-3 defensive runs saved entering Tuesday, 17th in the majors, after ranking sixth at plus-36 last season. Baseball Info Solutions also tracks "Good Fielding Plays" and "Defensive Misplays." The Pirates had a minus-56 differential between GFP and DM-plus errors before Tuesday's game, tied for sixth-worst in the majors.

The Pirates had another huge mistake in the ninth. After Starling Marte's leadoff single, Jung Ho Kang lined a double over Lorenzo Cain's head. Third-base coach Rick Sofield waved Marte home; he was thrown out easily, eliciting a big smile from Cain. You cannot get thrown out at home plate in the ninth inning trailing by three runs. It proved costly when the Pirates scored a run and had the bases loaded with two outs. Holland fanned Polanco on a nasty slider to end it.

Royals baseball.

Jason Vargas: "The beautiful thing about this team is they respond to adversity, no matter what it is."

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) July 22, 2015

On Twitter, Royals fans suggested to me that they've been beating good pitchers all season. OK, let's look it up. I scrolled through the opposing starters the Royals have faced and wrote down guys who could be considered aces or something close to an ace. Here are those starters I wrote down that they've faced: Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir, Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, David Price, Michael Pineda, Johnny Cueto, Lance Lynn, Michael Wacha, Jake Arrieta, Felix Hernandez, Dallas Keuchel, Chris Archer, A.J. Burnett, Cole.

Those are all good pitchers, no matter how you exactly classify them. They Royals have faced those guys a total of 21 games. They're 15-6 and have averaged 4.6 runs per game. They Royals have been beating good starters. The fans were right.

Are the Royals a team without flaws? No. The rotation is still very shaky, with Yordano Ventura getting sent down to Triple-A on Tuesday and now Vargas looking like he's headed back to the DL. They don't hit many home runs. They don't run quite as often as everyone thinks (Cain with 18 and Dyson with 15 are the only two guys with double-digit steals). But we know their strengths: the bullpen, the defense, the ability to put the ball in play. Against another team, maybe Cole gets that big strikeout and keeps the score at 0-0. Against the Royals, Dyson gets the big hit.

They're the best team in the American League.