Another look back at Saturday's impressive road win

KANSAS CITY - The Kansas City Royals don't lose very often in their ballpark, but the Orioles pinned an 8-3 loss on them in front of a sellout crowd at Kauffman Stadium last night.

Kansas City is now 7-3 at home this year and lost for just the third time in their last 17 home games, counting the 2015 postseason.

Adam Jones has played 1,254 games in the majors, but had never walked three times in one game until Saturday night. The Orioles continue to use that "pass the baton" mentality that manager Buck Showalter often cites. If the walk is there, take it and the let the next guy get it done. One night after they were held to a season-low five hits, the Orioles had a season-high 14 last night and went 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

"The guys are seeing the return," Showalter said."It kind of is that they feed off each other. I'm pretty sure I know that they've talked about it amongst each other. We challenged them, but we also challenged them last year.

"I think adding threats like (Pedro) Alvarez and (Mark) Trumbo, and we're really getting our people back. We played 18 games with those four guys in the infield (all together) last year. It's a lot easier to pass that along."

Trumbo said it was a nice bounceback victory after Friday's 4-2 loss in the series opener.

"Yeah, that was a close game (Friday) and they were just a little better. But I think the confidence was high going into tonight and we come away with a nice win," he said.

Manny Machado had yet another multi-hit game, going 2-for-5 with an RBI double. He has eight multi-hit games and is batting .397/.446/.779 with eight doubles, six homers and 11 RBIs.

Machado has driven in at least one run in six consecutive games. That is a career-high. He has recorded at least one extra-base hit in seven straight games. That is a career high.

His teammates say the Machado show is fun to watch.

"Oh, without a doubt," Trumbo said. "His hitting the ball, it's kind of a level above. His line drives, you know he is able to burn a few of those outfielders, just because he gets tremendous backspin. His approach has been rock-solid. Patient when he needs to be and when he is getting his pitch, he is doing a lot of damage."

Machado has the longest hitting streak in the American League at 16 straight games. If he gets a hit today he'll tie a team record for the longest hitting streak to start a season. Davey Johnson hit in 17 straight to begin the 1971 season.

Right-hander Tyler Wilson's first start of the year must have been somewhat pressure-packed for him, but he sure didn't show it. He was facing the World Series champions in a front of a frenzied sellout crowd after his team had lost the night before. And he could have been pitching to keep his roster spot, his rotation spot or maybe both. But it seemed like he had a blast out there.

"Pretty awesome," Wilson said of his night. "It was definitely a worthy opponent, like you always hear in movies. The atmosphere was pretty special, how loud it gets and how much fan admiration there is for that team.

"The biggest thing was that we came out with a win. I know it's a cliche, but I'm really happy to take the ball in any capacity, whatever it is. I just kind of take the approach (of) one day at a time. I try to learn as much as I can. There's so many great veterans, hitting and pitching. And the same goes for our coaches. Not a day goes by that I don't try to get better in some way. I'm just looking forward to improve every facet of my game."

The Orioles bullpen continues to get the job done. In this series, the bullpen has pitched 10 innings without allowing a run on four hits. The 'pen has recorded 13 scoreless innings over the last three games and an ERA of just 0.86 in the past five games.

So today the Orioles have a chance to finish a six-game stretch against Toronto and Kansas City going 4-2 if they get the win.

Right-hander Mike Wright (1-1, 5.73 ERA) faces right-hander Yordano Ventura (1-0, 2.81 ERA) in the series finale.