Shohei Ohtani homers as Los Angeles Dodgers sweep Kansas City Royals

LOS ANGELES: Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run home run and Eric Lauer delivered a strong pitching performance as the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 4-2 victory here at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.

The Dodgers also homered through Mookie Betts and Hunter Feduccia, completing their first series sweep since taking three games at Minnesota from June 22-24.

The victory came after Los Angeles had lost eight of its previous nine games.

Lauer improved to 7-6 after allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two while throwing a season-high 112 pitches, the most by a Dodgers pitcher in a game this season.

Kansas City opened the scoring in the second inning when Josh Rojas drove in a run with a single, but Betts levelled the contest with his 15th home run of the season.

Salvador Perez restored the Royals' lead with an RBI single in the third before Ohtani responded with his 27th homer of the year, a two-run shot that put Los Angeles ahead for good. The blast also ended Daniel Lynch IV's outing after just 2 1/3 innings.

Feduccia, reacquired by the Dodgers at the trade deadline, added another home run in the fifth to extend the lead to 4-2.

The Dodgers suffered a scare in the eighth when Freddie Freeman fell into the Royals' dugout while attempting to catch a foul ball. He completed the inning but was replaced as a pinch hitter.

Landon Knack then recorded the final eight outs to earn his first save of the season.