A look at O's longball success against Johnny Cueto, plus other notes

Kansas City Royals right-hander Johnny Cueto has pitched 6 percent of his innings this year against the Orioles. But he has given up 35 percent of his homers against Baltimore batters.

A pitcher that has twice finished among the top four in voting for the National League Cy Young Award, Cueto has allowed seven homers in two starts and 11 1/3 innings this year versus the Orioles. He has allowed 13 homers in 175 2/3 innings this season against every other team.

Cueto's homers allowed this year in his 28 starts:

* 0 homers - 16 times
* 1 homer - 7 times
* 2 homers - 3 times
* 3 homers - 1 time
* 4 homers - 1 time

On Aug. 26, Cueto allowed three homers in five innings against the Orioles. Last night, he gave up four homers in 6 1/3 innings. That tied his career high for homers allowed in a game and was the most he's given up since 2010.

So against a pitcher that has not allowed a home run in 16 of his 28 starts this year, the Orioles are the only team this season to hit more than two homers against Cueto in any of his starts. They've done it twice in two games against him.

His homers allowed per nine innings is 5.68 against the Orioles and 0.67 against every other team. Pretty impressive for O's batters against a pitcher with a career rate of 0.9 homers per nine innings.

Yes, Cueto is struggling. He was 0-4 with a 9.45 ERA in his previous four starts heading into last night. But the Orioles hit him around and kept him struggling.

More notes on the Orioles:

* O's batters scored 28 runs on 35 hits and hit .327 in the three-game series against the Royals. They had six doubles and 10 homers and hit .306 (11-for-35) with runners in scoring position.

* The Orioles have hit two or more homers in six of the last seven games, hitting 17 total. They've hit two or more in eight of the last 10 games, hitting 24 total in that span.

* Over his last 11 games, Chris Davis is batting .444 (16-for-36) with seven homers and 14 RBIs.

* In the last two games against the Royals, Adam Jones went 4-for-8 with a double, two homers and seven RBIs.

* Last season, Jonathan Schoop averaged a home run every 28.4 at-bats and had a slugging percentage of .354. This season he has homered once every 17.4 at-bats with a slugging percentage of .520.

* Wei-Yin Chen recorded his 18th quality start last night, but it was just the second by the O's staff in the last 16 games. Chen is 3-0 with a 2.95 ERA in his last six starts versus Kansas City.

Tides are tied: Triple-A Norfolk faced a must-win game last night and won. Trailing 5-2 heading to the seventh inning, Norfolk rallied to beat Columbus 6-5. So that International League semifinal series is tied 2-2 with a decisive fifth game set for Columbus tonight at 6:35 p.m.

Rey Navarro's two-run homer in the seventh pulled Norfolk within 5-4. Navarro had four hits last night and is 9-for-17 in the playoffs. Andy Wilkins, acquired by the Orioles a week ago yesterday, put the Tides ahead with a two-run double in the top of the ninth. He was 1-for-15 in the series until his go-ahead double.

In Game 5 tonight, right-hander Terry Doyle pitches for the Tides against right-hander Mike Clevenger. Doyle led Orioles minor leaguers with 16 victories this season, while Clevenger will be making his Triple-A debut after spending all season with Double-A Akron.

The winner of Monday's contest will host Indianapolis in Game 1 of the International League Championship Series on Tuesday night. The Indians swept three straight from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to advance.