KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Clayton Kershaw was asked to assess his performance against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night, and the Dodgers ace bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have command of his fastball.

Maybe if he did, he’d have tossed another no-hitter.

Kershaw still managed to follow his first career no-no by going eight marvelous innings, and Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier drove in a run apiece as the Dodgers scraped out a 2-0 victory.

“It definitely wasn’t easy tonight,” Kershaw said.

It only looked that way.

“All night he felt like he was fighting it,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly explained. “His fastball command wasn’t where he wanted it, but typical Clayton.”

Kershaw (8-2) allowed six hits and a walk while striking out eight. The two-time Cy Young winner hasn’t allowed a run in 21 1/3 innings, spanning his near-perfect game against Colorado on Wednesday — the only runner occurred on an error — and his previous start against Arizona.

Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for his 23rd save.

Danny Duffy (4-7) dueled admirably with Kershaw for six innings, allowing one run on four hits and four walks. But the left-hander was done in by a high pitch count, needing a season-high 105, and was eventually lifted to protect his surgically repaired shoulder.

Eric Hosmer had a pair of hits for the Royals, the first with one out in the first inning to end any thought of Kershaw tossing consecutive no-hitters. Otherwise, their offense was sporadic, unable to string together enough runners to pose much of a threat.

“He’s as good as advertised, that’s for sure, every bit of it,” Hosmer said. “He’s definitely got his game plan, which he sticks to the whole time. He’s got four well-above average pitches. The main thing about him is he gets ahead and attacks you early. That’s a guy you don’t want to get behind on with great off-speed and a fastball that he can hump to 95, 96. Luckily, that’s the last time we face him.”

The Dodgers plated their first run after Justin Turner tripled to lead off the game. He scored on a hard grounder by Gonzalez, which deflected off Duffy and toward second base for what nearly ended up being the game’s only run.

Ethier’s RBI single came off reliever Kelvin Herrera in the ninth inning.

Duffy needed 29 pitches to survive the first, and he wiggled out of jams each of the next four innings, too. But while he was gritty enough to keep Kansas City in the game, a lineup that has struggled to put up runs for the last week failed him again.

Kansas City has only scored 13 times while losing five of its last six.

Los Angeles had lost all four of its games played at Kauffman Stadium, including the series opener Monday night, when the Royals beat up on Zack Greinke, their former ace.

They had a much tougher time handling Kershaw.

Showcasing his mid-90s fastball, power curveball and devastating slider, Kershaw at one point retired eight straight. And even when he ran into trouble, he slipped right out of it.

Kershaw induced a double play after Hosmer’s single in the first. He rallied from a 3-0 count to Alex Gordon to strike him out with a runner aboard in the sixth. In the seventh, he got Justin Maxwell and Alcides Escobar on groundouts to leave a pair of runners on base.

“That’s the best slider we’ve seen all year long,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “That thing had teeth with a bite.”

In fact, the biggest blight on Kershaw’s night may have been his walk to Gordon in the fifth inning. It was only the second he’d allowed to a left-handed hitter this season.

“I made some pitches when I had to,” Kershaw said. “Tonight I was making a lot more stressful pitches. The no-hitter was stressful for more personal reasons.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jeremy Guthrie pitched into the eighth inning, Jarrod Dyson drove in two runs off Zack Greinke and the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Monday night to end a four-game losing streak.

Guthrie (5-6) allowed two runs and seven hits while winning his third straight start. He was buoyed by an offense that had only scored eight runs total during its recent slide.

Dyson, the Royals’ No. 9 hitter, went 3 for 3 and stole two bases. Salvador Perez hit a solo home run, and Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar — two of the players acquired by the Royals in the trade that sent Greinke to Milwaukee in December 2010 — drove in a run apiece.

Greg Holland served up a homer to Adrian Gonzalez in the ninth before earning his 22nd save.

Hanley Ramirez drove in the other two runs for the Dodgers, who are visiting Kansas City for the first time since they were swept in a three-game set in 2005.

In his third start against his former team, Greinke (9-4) was battered for a season-high five runs and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings. He had allowed just two runs over 15 1/3 innings in his previous two starts against the Royals, one with the Brewers and the other with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Royals pounded Greinke almost from the start, Perez belting the first pitch of the second inning over the wall in left field for a 1-0 lead. Then with two outs, Escobar singled and went to second on a wild pitch before heading home when Dyson dumped a single into left field.

Dyson made it 3-0 in the fifth when he scored on Cain’s single to right.

The Royals finally knocked Greinke from the game in the fifth, this time after Perez started the inning with a double. Greinke fought back to get two outs, but Escobar hit a triple into the right-field corner and Dyson tacked on another RBI single to make it 5-0.

That hit ended Greinke’s night. As he departed the mound, fans showered him with a chorus of boos, clearly recalling how the right-hander once demanded to be traded from their team.

Meanwhile, those same fans were waiting to give Guthrie a standing ovation.

The right-hander faced the minimum number of hitters through four innings, needing just four pitches in the second and five in the fourth. Gonzalez and Matt Kemp finally hit consecutive singles to start the fifth, but Guthrie calmly wiggled out of that jam.

It wasn’t until Miguel Rojas and Justin Turner hit singles and Ramirez one-hopped a double over the outfield wall to make it 5-2 in the eighth that Guthrie finally left the game.

Wade Davis finished the inning, and Holland cleaned up the ninth to preserve the win.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Fernando Rodney was good for another dozen pitches and the Seattle Mariners were good for a sweep.

Rodney, working for the fourth straight day, earned his 21st save in 23 chances as the Mariners defeated the Kansas City Royals 2-1 on Sunday for a three-game sweep.

Rodney, who had thrown 46 pitches in the previous three days, got saves in all three games at Kansas City. He last got into four consecutive games on May 27-30, 2013, for Tampa Bay.

“It was no problem,” Rodney said. “I said I feel ready. I got warmed up and felt good, felt loose. That’s why I’m a reliever.”

“Sometimes early in the season you have a little problem with getting loose. When the weather warms up it helps get me a little more loose,” he said.

Rodney dispatched the Royals on 12 pitches, giving up a two-out single to pinch-hitter Mike Moustakas before striking out Pedro Ciriaco to preserve the one-run lead.

“It’s simple,” Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said on summoning Rodney once again. “I had a talk with him and he felt good. He’s worked very, very efficiently, and he was very efficient today as well. He has not thrown a lot of pitches. He’s definitely off tomorrow. He asked me if he could go to the Dominican, but I told him no.”

Rookie Roenis Elias pitched neatly into the seventh inning and Mike Zunino homered for the Mariners, who have won 18 of their past 26 road games.

After winning 10 straight to move into first place in the AL Central, the Royals have dropped four in a row, three of them by 2-1 scores.

“We’re playing fine, but just an offensive down turn a little bit,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “You go through the ups and downs. A four-game losing streak right when you had put together a nice 10-game winning streak, it’s tough.”

Elias (7-5), a 25-year-old left-hander from Cuba, limited the Royals to one run and five singles over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out five, walked two and improved to 4-1 in June.

“Everything was working,” Elias said through a translator.

Zunino hit his ninth home run, tops among AL catchers. He connected off Yordano Ventura (5-6) leading off the seventh to break a 1-all tie.

“Even though things aren’t going our way right now, I think we’re playing really good,” Ventura said with teammate Bruce Chen acting as interpreter.

Zunino led off the fifth with a double and scored on Willie Bloomquist’s two-out double.

“We stepped up to the challenge and were able take three from them,” Bloomquist said. “It shows what we’re able to do when we play well. Those guys are a very, very good baseball team. Granted, a bounce here or there and it could have come out differently.”

Ventura (5-6) had won his previous three starts.

“He hung a breaking pretty good (to Zunino),” Yost said. “Outside of that, he pitched a great ball game. Anytime you go seven innings and give up two runs you give your team a chance to win a game that’s a great job.”

The Royals scored their run in the second, which Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez opened with singles. Justin Maxwell’s sacrifice fly brought home Gordon.

Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar left in the seventh with a bruised left shin. He was hit in the second by a pitch. X-rays were negative.

The Mariners won a challenge in the seventh when Ciriaco was ruled safe at first for a bunt single. After a reliever that took over 3 minutes, the call was overturned and Ciriaco was out.

— Associated Press —