For as much concern as the Kansas City Royals' pitching staff has given them and their fans lately, there's one thing going very right for the Royals as they gear up for a return to October: their offense.

That might sound like a surprise, considering that they rank last in the majors in walks and walk rate, or that they're sixth in the league in OPS, or that they've scored almost 150 fewer runs than the high-flying Blue Jays, or almost 40 fewer than the Yankees. But with the offense they have, you do not want to tangle with the Royals' lineup now or in the postseason if you're a potential playoff team.

We can use Kendrys Morales going nuts on Sunday for a career-best three homers and a triple -- not just becoming the first Royal to hit three homers in a game since Danny Tartabull in 1991, but also setting a Royals franchise record (and personal best) with 15 total bases in a single game (topping George Brett's 14 on May 28, 1979. As a durable everyday DH, he's the reason why the Royals' designated hitters rank third in the AL wOBA, trailing the Blue Jays' combo of Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and friends, and some guy named Papi in Boston.

But Morales is turning out as well as they could have possibly hoped in December, which is just part of what's going right as the Royals head into October with their best lineup all season firing on all cylinders. Counting deadline addition Ben Zobrist at second base, they have six everyday players with OPS marks north of .800. Now that Alex Gordon is back in action, those are your front six batters in the Royals' regular lineup.

Lorenzo Cain is having a breakout season ranking third in the American League in WAR. He's behind only Josh Donaldson and Mike Trout. AP Photo/John Minchillo

Adding Zobrist at the trade deadline and getting Gordon back from his hamstring injury made it easy to end this year's experiment with shortstop Alcides Escobar as a leadoff man two weeks ago after seeing him deliver a .299 OBP from the top of the order. Now they've got Zobrist (.370 OBP) and Gordon (.384) as the best table-setting combo in baseball. They were already averaging almost five runs per game since Aug. 1 with Zobrist added to the mix, but now that Gordon is back they've scored an American League-best 104 runs in September -- with a per-game average (5.5) that ranks with the Blue Jays (5.6).

In the heart of the order, the Royals are reaping the benefits of seeing their young stars blossom. Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer both came fully into their own this year as star players delivering in every phase of the game. Cain has earned and will get down-ballot consideration for MVP, ranking third in the AL in WAR; he's also among the best baserunners in the league, ranking in the top five in FanGraphs' Baserunning Runs stat with 5.4 BsR while also swiping 28 bases. They're delivering career-best marks on OPS (Cain at .843, Hosmer at .817). Both are also assets on defense, with Cain's 17 Defensive Runs Saved ranking top five in the AL, while Hosmer leads AL first basemen in Baseball Info Solutions' Good Fielding Plays with 68.

Behind them, you've got Morales and Mike Moustakas. Moustakas's unusual development has taken its latest turn, one that has essentially taken him full circle as a hitter. Remember how he started the season dumping a bunch of opposite-field singles to surprise defenses? That helped produce a first-half OPS of .780 and .297 batting average. But having demonstrated that he can do that with a .382 average on balls hit to the opposite field, he has slowly come back to being the kind of power hitter you probably expected him to be. He's hitting fewer singles (with just a .239 BABIP overall as his opposite-field average dropped to .318), but he's delivering tons more power, nearly doubling his Isolated Slugging from .130 in the first half to .254 in the second thanks to 13 homers, 10 of them pulled into the right-field seats. He's still tremendously productive, but the shape of his performance has fundamentally changed again.

That's just the regular front six -- six tough outs with power and patience. But the Royals' lineup could end up hitting on eight cylinders heading into October. Right fielder Alex Rios is finally fully healthy, having been slowed by an early-season hand contusion; he's cranked out a .765 OPS with a .293/.328/.436 triple-slash line since the All-Star break. And while catcher Salvador Perez has dropped off in the second half (with a .659 OPS and just five homers, against .726 and 15 blasts), you have to figure his AL-leading 126 starts behind the plate are part of the reason why he has slumped a bit. Thanks to a magic number of three, one of the benefits the Royals might reap in the last two weeks is that they should have extra opportunities to get him rested in time for October.

Then you get into bench weapons, such as Jarrod Dyson for speed or Paul Orlando for some extra-base power. They even added veteran Jonny Gomes to put the hurt on the occasional lefty. They might be able to carry a live bat like that of Cheslor Cuthbert on the bench.

Put all of that together, and you have a Royals lineup that, because of its depth and breadth, its speed and its power and its ability to spray hits all over the park, might be the October-bound offense that can hurt anybody in any park at any point in a game -- and perhaps their best guarantee to propel them to another pennant and a shot at a World Series win.

Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.