KANSAS CITY -- Christian Yelich had three chances to make his presence felt in his return from nearly a month nursing a bad back, but the sort of magic moment like shortstop Willy Adames provided the night before escaped the Brewers in a 6-4 loss to the Royals on Wednesday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

There was a costly slip amid a tough day in center field for Blake Perkins, a pause on the bases for Oliver Dunn, a miscommunication for Jackson Chourio in left field and an 0-for-5 day at the plate for Yelich, who represented the potential tying run in the ninth inning, when he hit a tapper back to the pitcher to end the game.

It was a series of miscues and missed opportunities that added up to Milwaukee’s second series loss on this road trip.

Still, a healthy Yelich was welcome news for the Brewers, who played multiple games on the trip in which six of the nine hitters in the lineup entered this season with less than a year of Major League service.

“It’s nice to be back out there,” Yelich said as the day began. “Felt like a really long time.”

And after?

“It’s just getting back in the flow of it. You take that much time off and you’re playing catch-up a little bit,” said Yelich, who had a 1.166 OPS before his back stiffened on April 12 in Baltimore and sent him to the injured list.

“I really didn’t feel that bad out there for how much time I missed. We’ll build on that.”

Three times, Yelich stepped to the plate in a big spot.

Brice Turang, hitting leadoff for the first time in his career, started the game with a double and scored on William Contreras’ double before Yelich grounded out. The Brewers wound up settling for a 1-0 lead.

Then, in the seventh with Milwaukee back within a run at 3-2 thanks to Gary Sánchez’s second home run of the series, Yelich batted with the potential tying runner in scoring position and the go-ahead runner on base. The Royals countered with left-hander Angel Zerpa and Yelich struck out to end the inning.

And in the ninth, after Milwaukee trimmed a four-run deficit to two and forced Kansas City to call for closer James McArthur -- the same pitcher who served up Adames’ go-ahead homer the previous night -- Yelich swung at a first-pitch sinker that dropped below the zone, and tapped it up the first-base line for the final out.

“I thought [Yelich] looked great. I don’t think there’s too many people who could come back after three-and-a-half weeks and compete that way,” manager Pat Murphy said, adding, “But again, you saw what we did: We fought back and put the [tying] run at the plate once again. A lot of things made the difference, but that’s baseball. You have to take care of that.”

Here are more of those moments that made a difference:

Moment No. 1: The slip.

Brewers starter Joe Ross surrendered three earned runs in five innings and deserved better. In the first, Maikel Garcia led off with a double and Bobby Witt Jr. -- a pest for Milwaukee all series -- hit a routine fly ball to center field. But Perkins slipped and fell, and Witt had a double. It led to two sacrifice flies and a 2-1 Royals lead.

Moment No. 2: The read.

Between Sánchez’s fifth Brewers home run and Yelich’s inning-ending strikeout in the seventh, rookie Dunn was at second base when Turang singled toward the left field line. Based on the sound of it and the location of left fielder MJ Melendez, Dunn worried the line drive might carry for an out, so he didn’t get a good jump. He was out on Melendez’s strong throw, preserving Kansas City’s one-run lead at the time.

“Not getting the right read on that ball at second base, if we get that run, we’re still playing, who knows?” Murphy said.

Moments Nos. 3 and 4: The fly balls that dropped.

The Brewers were still within a run before the Royals iced the game with three runs in the eighth off Joel Payamps, who was pitching for the second time in 13 days. The sequence included an Adam Frazier single that ticked off the glove of a diving Perkins in center, and a Garrett Hampson popup into shallow left field that rookie Jackson Chourio let drop in front of him while shortstop Adames drifted back.

“You make mistakes and then it piles on,” Murphy said. “But give them credit, they capitalized when they had to. They kept adding on.”