Dodgers’ offense delivers and bullpen holds up in 4-1 win over Royals

The momentum created by the swing caused Yasiel Puig to step across the plate upon impact. He tracked the flight of his home run, soaring into the left-field seats, until he was sure it was gone. Then he flipped his bat with both hands to punctuate an insurance run in the sixth inning of a 4-1 Dodgers victory.

On the mound, as Puig rounded the bases, Kansas City starting pitcher Jason Hammel hunched at the waist. He kept shaking his head as Dodger Stadium roared. It was not a particularly putrid pitch — a slider that may have ended up outside the strike zone — but Puig still hammered it. It was a snapshot of life for the Dodgers as the All-Star break approaches, a budding juggernaut running roughshod over the rest of the sport.

“That slider hung,” Puig said. “He threw so many sliders in the dirt that one had to stay up. I was able to connect with that one.”

The victory extended the latest winning streak to four games. The Dodgers (59-29) have lost eight times since May ended. They are on pace for 109 victories. The team has not won 100 games since a 102-win campaign in 1974.

The details of Friday felt more reminiscent of 2016 than this season. The starting pitcher lasted only five innings. The bullpen suppressed their foes for the rest of the contest. The lineup squeezed out a couple of runs, including a pair of RBI singles from Logan Forsythe and Corey Seager in the fourth inning, before some late-game thunder. In the eighth, Chase Utley thumped a double off the wall to produce the 1,000th RBI of his career.

“It’s a great milestone,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Kenta Maeda turned in five innings of one-run baseball before bequeathing a one-run lead to the bullpen. Maeda remains a member of the pitching staff in flux, asked to start when needed but preferably assigned to the bullpen. With Hyun-Jin Ryu nursing a sore foot and Brandon McCarthy hoping to avoid a recurrence of command failure on Saturday, Maeda will probably remain in the rotation after the break, Roberts said.

The matchup pitted two of baseball’s hottest teams. The Dodgers entered Friday with 17 wins in their last 20 games. The Royals went 14-6 during the same stretch, rescuing their season from the abyss. Ten games under .500 on May 7, the Royals now have a winning record and are in the American League playoff race.

Maeda was dueling with Hammel. Neither man appeared likely to dominate. Yet they produced zeroes to start the evening. Kansas City left three men on base in the first three innings. The Dodgers outdid their guests by stranding five during that time.

Maeda buckled first. With two outs in the first, he pumped a cutter over the middle to Kansas City third baseman Mike Moustakas. A day earlier, the Dodgers had partnered with the Royals for All-Star game’s “Final Vote” contest, pairing up Moustakas with Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner. Each man won his respective league’s vote, and they posed for pictures before Friday’s game.

Moustakas did not go gentle against his temporary allies. He smashed Maeda’s cutter into right field for a double. Yasiel Puig tried to cut Moustakas down at second, but the throw deflected off Moustakas’ legs.

Up next came slap-hitting shortstop Alcides Escobar, who started the day hitting .225. His average rose after a 3-2 fastball at the waist from Maeda. Escobar slashed a single to drive in the game’s first run.

In the bottom of the inning, Maeda used his bat to atone for his stumble on the mound. Maeda stepped to the plate with two outs and Utley at first. He had only three hits all season. His fourth came on a slider that darted toward the opposite batter’s box. Maeda swung all the same, and chopped a grounder through the left side of the infield. “My at-bat mattered thanks to Logan and Seager, who followed up on that,” Maeda said

His hit rolled over the lineup and exposed Hammel to the top of the Dodgers’ batting order. Forsythe extended his torrid summer by rolling a 94-mph fastball into right. Utley scored from second base to tie the score.

Seager arrived next. Struggling to track Hammel’s slider, Seager caught a break when Hammel hung a curveball. Seager sliced it into right for a go-ahead RBI single.

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

Twitter: @McCulloughTimes