Orioles, Cabrera extend winning streaks against Royals

What is it about the Baltimore Orioles in general, and Daniel Cabrera in particular, that brings out the worst in the Royals?

It happened again Thursday night when Baltimore slapped down the Royals 4-1 in the first of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium. In doing so, the Orioles broke a five-game skid and beat the Royals for the 10th straight time.

That’s right, 10 in a row.

The Orioles.

And Cabrera? Well, he’s always oozed potential, but his inconsistency has often been maddening to the Orioles. His career record is seven games below .500 and his ERA continues to hover around 5.00.

Sure, he’s been on a roll lately. But he always seems in All-Star form against the Royals. This was the same only more so: A three-hit complete game.

“I don’t know what to say,” Royals DH Billy Butler mused. “He was on tonight.”

Cabrera is now 4-0 in seven career starts against the Royals with a 2.25 ERA. Lots of consistency there.

“He had a lot of first-pitch strikes,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “He had movement on his fastball. He pitched inside, his tempo was very good. That’s the best I’ve seen him pitch.”

Cabrera, 3-1, allowed only two fly-ball outs in an overpowering 116-pitch performance. He struck out seven and walked one in registering his fifth complete game.

Royals starter Luke Hochevar, 2-2, paid dearly for one really bad pitch — a floating change-up to Nick Markakis in the third inning. The result was a three-run bomb that expanded a 1-0 lead to 4-0.

“The difference in the ballgame was that mistake I made to Markakis,” Hochevar said. “I got beat with my least-best pitch instead of sticking with my strength and attacking the strike zone.”

Otherwise, Hochevar was solid in holding the Orioles to four runs and five hits in seven innings. Joakim Soria endured his first rough outing when he yielded a single and hit two batters in the ninth in a stay-sharp appearance, but Joel Peralta stranded all three runners.

This is getting old, really.

The Royals haven’t beaten Baltimore since July 25, 2006, when they rallied for a 7-5 victory behind Mark Redman at Kauffman. Last year’s Orioles lost 93 games, same as the Royals, but went 7-0 in the season series.

Another depressing sidenote: The Royals also had two errors for only the second time this season in 34 games. Hochevar mishandled a throw in the first inning, and third baseman Alex Gordon booted Kevin Millar’s slow roller in the sixth.

The Orioles, in addition to their five-game skid, had been struggling to score almost as much as the Royals, mustering just 32 runs in their previous 11 games. Four were plenty for Cabrera.

“It was pitching,” Trembley said. “And then we got the big hit by Markakis.”

Hochevar got two quick outs in the first inning before running into trouble by walking Markakis, who raced to third on Aubrey Huff’s slow-roller single up the middle. A wild pitch scored Markakis.

It got a lot worse in the third.

Freddie Bynum led off with a single and went to second on a strike-three wild pitch to Brian Roberts. Melvin Mora walked before Markakis rammed a three-run homer over the center-field wall.

The Royals’ attack consisted of Gordon’s two-out double in the first inning until Ross Gload’s two-out single in the fifth. In between, Cabrera retired 12 in a row.

But John Buck worked back from an 0-2 count for a walk, and Tony Peña followed with a slicing RBI single to right. Cabrera avoided further damage by retiring David DeJesus on a grounder to second.

Cabrera closed strong, too. That grounder by DeJesus was the first of 13 straight outs to conclude the game.

“I don’t even know who the guy is,” said Bynum, who was activated from the disabled list before the game. “When I was rehabbing, I watched a lot of games, and he’s a totally different person than he was last year.

“It’s like he’s growing up. He’s maturing. And he’s making his pitches when he needs to make them.”

To reach Bob Dutton, send e-mail to bdutton@kcstar.com