Dodgers manager: We ‘couldn’t keep up’ with the Royals in three-game series in KC

If the Major League Baseball season ended today, the Royals would be out of the playoffs for the eighth straight season.

The Dodgers, 46-38, would have clinched an 11th straight postseason berth, with their sights set on a fourth World Series appearance in seven years.

But anyone watching the Royals-Dodgers series this weekend at Kauffman Stadium would have had trouble identifying which team is in the playoff race.

The Royals, 25-59, won two of three against the Dodgers, who have the sixth-highest payroll in baseball. Those two victories came by a combined scored of 15-5.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said his team “couldn’t keep up” with the Royals.

“Those guys just outplayed us,” Roberts told reporters after the Royals’ 9-1 victory Sunday. “It’s a different brand of baseball as far as putting the ball in play, hitting behind runners, stealing bases. They were excellent at situational hitting. And so, to be quite honest, we couldn’t keep up. That’s how they beat us, that’s how they won the series.”

The Royals had 15 hits Sunday and walked five times, and they were aggressive on the basepaths, putting pressure on the Dodgers defense.

Bobby Witt Jr. had a sacrifice hit and a sacrifice fly, one day after the Royals collected three sacrifice flies in a 6-4 win over the Dodgers. The Royals also stole five bases in the series.

“The young guys played really good today,” Salvador Perez said after Sunday’s game. Perez also was aggressive on the bases, scoring on a sacrifice fly in Saturday’s victory thanks to a nifty slide.

The Royals scored five times in the first inning of Saturday’s game, then had a pair of three-run frames Sunday and scored twice in another inning.

“There’s a couple of ways you put up crooked numbers, right?” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “You hit homers or you string at-bats together. These games, I don’t think we hit a home run in this series, so to string those at-bats together, take the walks when they’re given to you, swing at the good pitches when it’s there, and you need some luck too. I mean some of those balls aren’t well hit but they found some grass.”

The Royals didn’t have a home run in the series, but their speed gave the Dodgers fits, as Roberts noted.

Infielder Nicky Lopez said the weekend was a blueprint for success for the Royals, who won their first two games in July.

“Kind of our identity is speed on the basepaths, taking the extra base when we can, playing good defense, pitching the ball, that’s the identity that we need to have,” Lopez said. “Obviously it hasn’t been the year that we want, but this is what we need to do.

“We showed glimpses of it. When we put it all together, we can compete with whoever. That’s a really good team there. They’re gonna be in October, they’re always playing in October. That’s something we’re striving to get to, so it’s one of those things where it’s good to base yourself off what you did that weekend against a really good team and kind of go from there.”