KANSAS CITY, Mo. – If Julio Urias looks back at the video of his first start in six weeks, it will be a blooper reel.

Urias’ return to the mound was delayed 85 minutes by rain. But that was nothing compared to the drip, drip, drip of the Kansas City Royals’ offense as they scored five runs in the first inning against Urias on three bloop singles, a hit batter, two sacrifice flies (one to the second baseman) and a 12-pitch walk.

The Dodgers never quite erased the Royals’ minimalist painting and lost 6-4 Saturday night.

“I’ve just got to pitch better,” Urias said through an interpreter. “I felt good but I didn’t do my job. Gotta pitch better.”

Obviously frustrated, Urias kept his answers short following the game. Asked what he could have done differently, he said only, “Just get results. Get those three outs.”

For Urias, the five-run first inning was an ugly bookend to his time on the Injured List. In his last inning before being sidelined, he allowed six runs on four home runs in St. Louis on May 18. The loss to the Royals leaves at 5-5 this season with an ERA now 4.94 — more than double his league-leading mark last year (2.16).

“That I pitched bad,” Urias said, summarizing his thoughts after that rough first inning.

He retired just three of the first 11 batters he faced Saturday but four of the six hits he allowed had exit velocities under 72 mph. The first four Royals reached base — a leadoff double by Maikel Garcia followed by one bloop single to right and another on a pop up that landed on the grass just behind where second baseman Miguel Vargas would have been playing. But he had broken to cover second base on a steal attempt and didn’t reverse field fast enough.

Then Nick Pratto battled Urias for 12 pitches, drawing a walk that loaded the bases. Pitching for the first time in six weeks, that matchup against the left-handed Pratto seemed to take a lot out of Urias.

“I think so. More so I think the hit after hit after hit did probably,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “Then he has the long at-bat. I took a mound visit there, let him re-focus, catch his breath. Then another dink hit after that. That sucks. It’s part of baseball. Normally that doesn’t happen but tonight it did.”

Urias got the next hitter to pop up to shallow center field. Vargas caught it but he hesitated and Bobby Witt Jr. beat his throw home after tagging up at third.

At the other end of the speed spectrum, catcher Salvador Perez scored on a sacrifice fly that actually reached the outfield when he made a nifty slide around Smith’s tag, tucking his left arm in just long enough to avoid Smith’s tag.

“I didn’t think he was crisp,” Smith said of Urias. “He’s trying to make pitches. I think some pitches were up that are usually down and he doesn’t get the soft contact. He might get a ground ball or a swing-and-miss on it. He wasn’t bad by any means. He could have been better. But it’s his first outing in a couple months. He did what Julio does – he competes.”

Urias had just two strikeouts and five swings-and-misses overall in his 66-pitch outing.

“Some of those plays, there’s really not a whole lot you can do as far as a pitcher,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I think that if you’re going to poke holes, I think some of those balls are up. When the ball is a little bit more elevated you have a chance for some flares.”

If the first inning was all too much for Urias, it was enough for the Royals.

The Dodgers answered back with three runs in the second inning against left-hander Daniel Lynch. A one-out walk of Jonny De Luca was followed by a James Outman single, an RBI double by Yonny Hernandez, a sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts and a two-out RBI single by Freddie Freeman.

For Betts, the sacrifice fly ended a stretch of eight consecutive plate appearances in which he had reached base – bookended by sacrifice flies.

A quartet of relievers picked up for Urias who went just three innings and allowed just one unearned run (after an error by one of them, Ryan Brasier).

The Dodgers finally scored again in the eighth inning thanks to three consecutive singles — one through Royals first baseman Nick Pratto, another misplayed by him (he looked home, hesitated then flipped too late to the pitcher covering first base).

They loaded the bases with two outs but Royals reliever Scott Barlow (a potential trade piece at the deadline for the Royals) got Freeman to ground out then retired the side in order in the ninth.

“I did. I did,” Roberts said when asked if he thought the stage was set for a comeback in the eighth. “You always feel good when Freddie comes up to bat with guys in scoring position.”

The Dodgers stranded 10 runners on base in the loss.

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