Royals drop another one to Orioles

It wasn’t a total loss Friday night at Kauffman Stadium. “American Idol” finalist David Cook did a star turn in the seventh-inning stretch. Throw in some nonrainy weather, finally, and the usual Friday postgame fireworks. All very nice.

The Royals, though … hoo-boy. Another loss to the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 this time.

For starters, let’s just say Gil Meche didn’t build on the success of his last outing. He lasted just five innings this time and needed 98 pitches to do so.

Meche also squandered an early two-run lead by yielding no-doubt homers to Melvin Mora in the third and Aubrey Huff in the fifth.

Both came on curveballs with two outs.

Huff’s blast was an absolute backbreaker. It followed an intentional walk to Nick Markakis and broke a 2-2 tie, and the Royals never recovered.

“That’s just bad pitching,” Meche said. “It’s a 1-2 pitch, and I’ve got to bounce it. I told Bucky (catcher John Buck), I was going to bounce it. And I leave it middle-in for a power lefty. That’s the one pitch he can definitely handle.”

The result was an 11th straight loss to the Orioles in a streak that extends to July 25, 2006. For some perspective, consider the non-head-to-head records of the two clubs since that time:

Royals 111-138; Orioles 101-147.

It gets worse.

That 11-game skid now includes two losses to veteran Steve Trachsel, who entered Friday’s game with a career-threatening 7.43 ERA. But he again used the Royals as a lifeline, improving to 2-4 by allowing just two runs in 5 1/3 innings.

“That’s the exact opposite of what he’s been doing,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “He’s been pitching behind, and then trying to get people out with his breaking ball.

“A lot of teams haven’t been swinging at it, because it hasn’t been a strike, then they force him to come in there with a fastball and they’ve been hitting it.”

It, too, was nothing new.

Trachsel made two starts last year against the Royals. One resulted in his only complete game, and he yielded just two runs in 16 innings.

Meche, 2-5, allowed five runs in five innings and saw his ERA climb to 6.31. It was a disappointing reversal of form from his seven shutout innings last Sunday in Cleveland.

“Just when you think you’ve got it,” he said. “My last start, I had a good curveball. Today, I got beat on it.”

Alex Gordon drove in three of the Royals’ four runs with a two-run homer in the first and an RBI single in the seventh. In doing so, he took over the club lead in both categories with five home runs and 18 RBIs.

The Royals wasted chances throughout the game. They had runners at second and third with one out in the second and got nothing. Same thing after loading the bases with one out in the sixth on a walk by Trachsel and two more walks by reliever Matt Albers.

“We had every opportunity,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said. “The second and the sixth (in particular). Even if we only execute in one of those two innings, it’s a different ballgame.”

Gordon’s two-out RBI single against Jamie Walker in the seventh put runners at first and second, but Jim Johnson retired Miguel Olivo on a fly to left. George Sherrill opened the ninth by yielding a single and walk before pitching out of the jam for his 11th save in 13 opportunities.

“It’s not that we collectively had bad at-bats,” Buck said. “It’s just that when we had chances, we didn’t get it done.”

The loss dropped the Royals to 15-20 overall and left them 1-4 at the midpoint of their season-long, 10-game homestand.

The Orioles, 18-18, finished with 12 hits, including two apiece by Markakis, Huff, Kevin Millar, Ramon Hernandez and Freddie Bynum.

They got their final two runs in the seventh against Ron Mahay and Ramon Ramirez.

The Royals jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Gordon followed Mark Teahen’s one-out single with a 409-foot homer over the right-field wall.

Meche surrendered Mora’s game-tying homer in the third after Bynum pulled a one-out double to right. Bynum also ignited the three-run fifth with a leadoff single.

Meche struck out Brian Roberts but committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt that enabled Bynum to reach second.

That error prompted an intentional walk to Markakis to set up a matchup against Huff, who was three for 20 with seven strikeouts in his career against Meche.

“I’ve never seen (Meche) very well,” Huff said. “I got two strikes, and I was looking heater. But he left a curveball out over the plate and I was fortunate enough to get a piece of it.”

To reach Bob Dutton, Royals reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4352 or send e-mail to bdutton@kcstar.com