HOUSTON -- If there are devices to measure things like panic electrons or insecurity neutrons, the Kansas City Royals might register nary a blip, even as they sit one loss away from the end of a season that was supposed to be about redemption for unfinished business.

Facing elimination just three games into the 2015 playoffs was not part of the plan.

The story arc extended well over the American League Division Series and was trained toward the back half of another World Series, where they could take the trophy that slipped from their grasp last year.

Yet here are the Houston Astros, a somewhat similar version of what the Royals were last season, one game from advancing after their 4-2 victory Sunday gave them a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five series.

So while the Astros sit poised to deliver the poison to end the fairy tale, the Royals have something of an antidote, collected bit by bit through all their trials and tribulations in the 2014 playoffs.

“Any experience you have in the postseason is huge,” said reliever Danny Duffy, who was tagged with a Chris Carter home run on Sunday. “You have to be a sponge to everything you can take from this. Being that we played our fair share of games that were do-or-die, obviously it’s huge. It will play tremendously for us.”

There actually isn’t any mystery to the Royals’ plan. What they figure to do on Monday afternoon is to play something similar to a tennis match, where they keep the ball well within the lines and let their opponents hit all the unforced errors.

Once the Royals dropped Game 1 of the ALDS at home on Thursday, the outline that was written has been followed exactly as expected: Win Game 2, then probably drop Game 3 on Sunday against Astros ace Dallas Keuchel. Next for the Royals is to take Game 4 behind Yordano Ventura to force a deciding Game 5 at home.

The first two steps have played out, but now comes the hard part of winning back-to-back games to avoid elimination.

“Yeah, if there is a group that can come back and has their backs to the wall, it’s this group that can bust out of it,” said Eric Hosmer, who has had a rough series so far, going 1-for-12 with three strikeouts. “We have to have the same mentality we had after dropping the first one back home and try to even this one out and get back to Kaufman Stadium and see what happens from there.”

Hosmer was there when the Royals put together an improbable rally in the AL wild-card game last season against the Oakland Athletics, going from a 7-3 deficit in the seventh inning to a 9-8 victory in 12 innings.

And when the Royals were a game away from falling in the World Series, they put together a dominating 10-0 victory in Game 6 over the San Francisco Giants to force a deciding Game 7. Of course the magic ran out then, but it took the completion of Madison Bumgarner’s historic postseason to end the dream.

“We’ve talked a little bit about what we’re going to do tomorrow and come to the ballpark and not think too much about it: If we lose we go home, if we lose we go home,” catcher Salvador Perez said. “No, we don’t have to think about that stuff; you just have to think about winning the game and go to the next step.”

The best-case scenario for the Royals is that the Astros look at their home game on Monday as their own do-or-die of sorts, because they don’t want to have to settle things back in Kansas City. And in a matchup of two win-or-else mindsets, the Royals like their chances.

“You know what, we always find ways to win games,” said Royals right fielder Alex Rios, who wasn’t on last year’s team but has witnessed Kansas City's collective confidence all season. “We couldn’t get it done [on Sunday], but we’ve done it throughout the whole season. Even when we’re behind, we find ways to win ballgames. I don’t think we need to panic at this time.”

Ventura will start for the Royals on Monday after just three days of rest, but he only threw 42 pitches in Game 1 on Thursday and says he feels fine. Perez says the game plan for Ventura will revolve around attacking the strike zone with secondary pitches and not be so fastball reliant.

A quick start against Astros starter Lance McCullers will be key for Kansas City, just don’t expect the Royals to stress about it.

“We’ve come too far as a team,” Hosmer said with all the confidence he could muster. “We realize we’re one loss away from our season being over, but we can’t think like that. We have to go out tomorrow, play the game and do what we can.”