Julio Urías’ return from the 15-day injured list was not what the Los Angeles Dodgers expected as he struggled through just three innings of a 6-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
Urías wasn’t particularly sharp as he failed to induce much swing and miss, but an abundance of bad luck was also at play.
Maikel Garcia connected for a hard-hit leadoff double in the bottom of the first inning, but soft singles from Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez followed to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. After a walk loaded the bases, Edward Olivares’ sacrifice fly brought in Witt.
The Royals then scored another run on a sacrifice fly, though due in large part to Will Smith not making an accurate attempt with his tag on Perez. Another soft hit from Drew Waters drove in two more to cap off the five-run inning.
To Urías’ credit, he pitched through traffic in the second and third innings to keep the Royals at their early outburst.
During that span the Dodgers began to rally and chip away at their deficit. The comeback bid started with Yonny Hernández’s one-out RBI double in the second inning after Jonny DeLuca walked and James Outman singled.
A sacrifice fly from Mookie Betts scored Outman, and Freddie Freeman delivered a two-out RBI single to start the month of July on a positive note after a record-setting June.
Like Urías, Daniel Lynch managed to get through the rest of his outing without allowing a run.
The Dodgers appeared poised to continue their comeback when Betts led off the seventh inning with a double, but he never advanced any further.
After Kansas City pushed across an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh, L.A. got it back on Outman’s RBI infield single in the eighth and they proceeded to load the bases but Freeman rolled a grounder over to end the inning.
Dodgers road trip
Having dropped the middle game, the Dodgers now need a win on Sunday to take the series from the Royals and avoid a .500 trip.
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