KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dave Roberts has a high bar for his $400 million baseball team.
Sure, the Dodgers entered Friday winners of 13 of their 17, tied for the best overall record in baseball and leading the National League West by six games.
Sure, they already have one guaranteed All-Star in Shohei Ohtani, and seven other finalists who advanced to the second stage of fan voting that will begin next week.
But, in the eyes of their manager, “I still just don’t believe we’re playing our best baseball,” Roberts said Friday afternoon. “I don’t think we’ve played complete baseball for a stretch.”
On Friday night, the Dodgers still weren’t at their best. Dustin May managed just four innings in a four-run start. The lineup produced only four total hits. Teoscar Hernández made a defensive blunder in the outfield. And the bullpen danced in and out of trouble down the stretch.
But right now, amid this soft portion of the team’s schedule, flawed performances have often still been enough.
And in Friday’s 5-4 win over the badly slumping Kansas City Royals, that once again proved to be the case.
For all the Dodgers’ shortcomings, they did just enough to compensate in a series opener at Kauffman Stadium.
May gave up a run in the first after letting three straight batters reach with two outs, but not before Ohtani opened the scoring with a leadoff blast.
Hernández let a hard-hit but catchable line drive get over his head in right field in the third, fueling a three-run Royals rally that was punctuated by Bobby Witt Jr.’s two-run blast. But that was sandwiched by a two-run homer from Max Muncy in the second, and a game-tying triple from Ohtani in the fifth.
Mookie Betts eventually put the Dodgers in front one at bat after Ohtani’s triple, singling him home to give the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.
And though May’s high pitch count forced him to exit early against the Royals (38-44), a worn-down Dodgers bullpen patched together five scoreless frames, escaping their biggest jam in the ninth when closer Tanner Scott induced a game-ending double play with the bases loaded.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was still enough to move the Dodgers into sole possession of the best record in the majors at 52-31.
That extended stretch of dominance is still eluding them. But for now, they’re finding ways to win anyway.
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