KANSAS CITY -- Before Sunday afternoon, the only two Royals to have faced Red Sox veteran Chris Sale were Salvador Perez and Matt Duffy.

The rest of the lineup quickly learned about Sale’s uniqueness.

The Royals were held to two hits against the Boston starter, despite seeing his velocity dip and working his pitch count up to 100 across five scoreless innings in Kansas City’s 7-3 loss at Kauffman Stadium.

“I think he changed his plan today,” catcher Perez said. “Slider was good, changeup was good, he’s got a good combination of the fastball up -- he made me think about the inside and then went away.”

“He’s a very unique person to face regardless of the velo, and some of the guys have never seen that,” manager Matt Quatraro added. “It’s a good experience.”

On the other side was bulk pitcher Zack Greinke, who has been sick lately but still felt good enough to pitch Sunday. After Taylor Clarke threw a scoreless first inning as the opener, Greinke had the next 3 2/3 innings, his biggest mistake coming on a badly located changeup that Masataka Yoshida crushed for a three-run homer in the fourth.

Despite 100 losses on the horizon, here are three things to watch over the last month of the season:

1. Who’s a keeper at the end of this evaluation season?
The Royals have looked at 2023 as a season to evaluate their roster and have young players learn at the Major League level, and that evaluation needs to span the entire season, all 162 games.

But there’s a lot you can learn about a player in the final month of a lost season when exhaustion sets in and offseason plans start to take shape. There are still 24 games to go, so who’s going to show they have something left in the tank?

“Everybody wants to win,” Perez said. “Win some more games. But I think it’s going to come. We’ve got a lot of young guys. They play hard. They love to play and they play hard. When you see the young guys give everything they have on the field, I feel good.”

It reached 97 degrees on Sunday, and Kauffman Stadium was quieter than usual. Energy felt lacking. The Royals have to learn how to find the extra level to play regardless.

“Motivation, regardless of the environment, starts with yourself,” Quatraro said. “If you’re relying on other people to motivate you or us as a team, having some external force motivate you, then you’re in trouble. And when you motivate yourself, that becomes contagious to the people around you. It’s just a matter of learning how to do it day in and day out when things are good and even when things aren’t good.”

Despite an inconsistent offense this weekend against the Red Sox, the Royals still made an impression with 13 runs on Friday and their refusal to quit in the ninth with two runs against closer Kenley Jansen.

“They’ve got a good offensive club,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “… They have some impactful players, guys that are growing into everyday big leaguers little by little. Their record doesn’t indicate that, but it’s a tough team.”

2. Can Bobby Witt Jr. make history?
Witt hit his 28th homer Friday and stole his 39th base of the season Sunday. Even with three strikeouts and an error on Sunday, it seems like he’s still impacting every game recently; the stolen base in the sixth inning led to the Royals’ first run of the day on Perez’s RBI single.

With two more home runs, Witt can become the first Royal to have a 30-homer, 30-stolen base season.

“The guys love Bobby,” Quatraro said Friday after Witt’s homer. “Everybody knows he’s trying to put up some historic numbers. Every inch closer he can get is a really, really good thing for us.”

3. Injury returns
This season has largely been a lost one for Daniel Lynch, who has battled a left shoulder injury all year and has only made nine starts. If Lynch, who threw a bullpen session Friday and is scheduled for another Monday, can log some innings this year still, he can leave a good impression entering the offseason. First baseman Nick Pratto (groin strain/hip inflammation) seems close to a return after playing all nine innings at first base for Triple-A Omaha on Saturday and getting four more at-bats as the DH on Sunday.

How Brady Singer, who is on the paternity list now and skipped his last start because of arm fatigue, finishes the season is important, too. He’s on schedule to come back for Tuesday’s start and see if he can get back on track after two rough starts.