Early deficit too much for Kansas City Royals to overcome in loss to Orioles
The Kansas City Royals were down four runs by the end of the first inning Tuesday night, and they couldn’t piece together a rally in a 7-3 loss to Baltimore in front of an announced 4,981 in Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The teams split the first two games of their four-game series.
The Royals (62-76) have lost 13 of their last 17 regular season games in Baltimore dating to 2015.
The Orioles (44-93) snapped a five-game losing streak to American League Central opponents.
Royals starting pitcher Jackson Kowar (0-3) gave up six runs on five hits and four walks in six innings. He gave up two home runs, struck out seven and threw 105 pitches.
Offensively, Royals first baseman Carlos Santana homered, and Whit Merrifield doubled, scored a run and stole his 39th base of the season.
Nicky Lopez and Edward Olivares had two hits apiece. Lopez extended his on-base streak to 17 games. Salvador Perez went 1 for 5 with a run scored.
The Royals left nine men on base and went 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
They put eight balls in play with an exit velocity of 100 mph or more, and only three went for hits.
“Sometimes it’s that way,” Lopez said. “We call them ‘at ‘em balls’. You’re just hitting it right at ‘em and nothing really to show for it. We got some guys on, trying to string a couple across and kind of got a little stale. That’s baseball sometimes. It sucks, but now we’ve got to just move on to the next one.”
Kowar gave up all six runs in the first three innings as the Royals fell into a 6-1 hole. A two-run homer by DJ Stewart in the first inning and a two-run homer by Austin Hays in the third accounted for the majority of the damage.
The Royals scored their first run in the top of the third, and they pulled within four on Santana’s 19th homer of the season to make it 6-2 in the fourth. However, they left the bases loaded in the inning after Merrifield lined out to left field to end the inning.
Orioles starting pitcher Alexander Wells gave up two runs on five hits, including one home run, and two walks in four innings.
Orioles reliever Mike Baumann held the Royals in check for the better part of four innings in his major-league debut. He left with two men on, but hadn’t given up a run through pitched 3 2/3 innings.
The Royals scored one run on a fielding error by Orioles third baseman and former Royal Kelvin Gutierrez in the eighth inning, but they stranded the bases loaded again in the eighth inning.
“We had some hard-hit balls,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We had some damage out there. Missed opportunities in the fourth and the eighth. When we get the bases loaded, you just see a big inning about to happen. We didn’t get a whole lot going against their starter, really, until that fourth. Before we had a chance to really get to him, he’s out and they go to some different arms in the pen.
“The young guy came in and did a nice job of keeping us off-balance. But when you get two chances with the bases loaded and a chance to get us right back in the game, we just need the big hit.”
First pitch for the third game of the four-game series is set for 6:10 p.m. Central time Wednesday. The pitching matchup will feature Royals left-hander Mike Minor (8-12, 5.25) against Orioles right-hander RHP Matt Harvey (6-14, 6.28).
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 9:14 PM.
