Jonathan Schoop on his impressive homer hit list and more after O's win over K.C.

Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop already had Johnny Cueto on his homer hit list, even before tonight's game. Schoop has homered off some very good pitchers in his career and he hit two off Cueto tonight in the Orioles' 8-2 win over Kansas City.

In five career at-bats versus Cueto, Schoop is now 4-for-5 with three homers and four RBIs.

Schoop has homered twice in his career in 12 at-bats off Masahiro Tanaka and also has taken Jeff Samardzija, Mark Buehrle, Dellin Betances, Noah Snydergaard and Justin Verlander deep.

He's not sure why his homer hit list is so impressive. Does he just get more fired up to face top pitchers?

"I want to know, too," Schoop said after twice homering off 1-0 Cueto sliders. "I want to know if it's that. For me to (be able to) do it with every pitcher. I want to know.

"Cueto is a really good pitcher. If you get a good pitch the first or second pitch, you better take advantage of it. He's got a lot of pitches to go to, changeup and slider."

After hitting 16 homers in 137 games last year, Schoop has hit 14 in 69 games this season. Over a 162-game season, that is a 33-home run pace.

"I don't look at numbers, like J.J (Hardy) taught me - don't look at the numbers," Schoop said. "The main goal for everyone is be healthy, and at the end of the season, your numbers are going to be there. I know I have 14 home runs, but I don't want to think that I could be a 30-(homer) guy. I just want to let it happen.

"I've made a lot of adjustments (this season). Last year was a tough year for me. (Hitting coach Scott) Coolbaugh was working me a lot in spring training and I've got veterans to help and teach me. Guys like Adam Jones, J.J., Manny (Machado). I feel like I'm way better than last year but still have a long way to go."

This was Schoop's second career multi-homer game. He hit two on May 26, 2014 against Milwaukee. The Orioles are 27-4 in his career when he homers. Of his 74 hits, 28 have gone for extra bases with 14 doubles and 14 homers.

Adam Jones hit a three-run shot in the first and drove in four on the night. The Orioles have homered seven times in 11 1/3 innings off Cueto, scoring 14 runs against him in his two starts versus them.

"It started off with Wei-Yin Chen going out there and giving our defense everything he had," Jones said. "He was effective and throwing strikes. That made us stay on our toes and we were able to swing the bats well. So it all started with the pitcher. It was not easy getting Cueto, but we were able to get some balls lifted and drive them out of the park."

Jones was asked about Schoop's improvement from 2014 to 2015.

"He's playing with confidence. Confidence can do a lot for a man," he said.

Chen had allowed 10 runs in 9 2/3 innings over his past two starts. But tonight he gave up two runs over seven innings to get the win. Chen is 22-5 in his career when he works seven innings or more.

"I haven't pitched well for some period of time," Chen said through his interpreter. "Today I am happy I could do my part and we could win this game. Today we had great plays by Manny and Adam Jones that really helped me to settle down.

"The past two starts, I think, maybe I was trying too hard and was overthinking. I couldn't stay calm in the game so today I was just focused on my pitching and doing better then the previous two starts."