Notes on Gallardo, McFarland, Machado, Rickard and more

KANSAS CITY - The Orioles lost the first game of the Toronto series and then won the next two against the defending American League East champs. They lost 4-2 to Kansas City last night and now will try to win the next two games against the defending World Series champs.

The Royals had two runs after two pitches last night against right-hander Yovani Gallardo. A single and a Mike Moustakas two-run homer got their offense started and they scored four early runs in the first two innings against Gallardo but went scoreless the next six.

We now know Gallardo had shoulder discomfort and is headed back to Baltimore today. A rotation that is struggling right now with an ERA of 5.16 doesn't need any more bad news. The Orioles hope they don't get any here but are probably braced for something on Gallardo.

"I wasn't able to extend to get that release point," Gallardo said. "I think that's why the ball was just up and all over the place. Felt like the ball was coming out of my hand and the strength wasn't there. Hopefully, it wasn't anything serious."

The Orioles were held to a season-low five hits and their offense has produced just 16 runs the last five games. Had they come back with some runs to win last night, left-hander T.J. McFarland would have been a real hero.

He pitched five scoreless innings on 66 pitches and saved the O's bullpen for the rest of this series. If the O's 'pen contributes to wins in Kansas City, McFarland's outing may loom large.

"Well that is first and foremost," McFarland said. "The reason why I go out there so early is so we don't mess up the bullpen for the rest of the series. It was definitely important for me to stretch it out. But because the game was so close, it kind of turned into me, you know, not giving up any runs because we needed a chance to win.

"Really I had everything working. It is one of those rare nights where you feel good, so I definitely took advantage of it. Came out throwing strikes."

Manny Machado hit his sixth homer last night, a solo shot in the sixth inning that extended his hitting streak to a career-best 15 consecutive games. Machado is batting .397 and has 13 extra-base hits in 15 games with seven doubles and six homers. He has recorded an extra-base hit in a career-high six consecutive games.

Before Friday's game, manager Buck Showalter talked about his emerging superstar third baseman.

"I haven't seen him get out of himself," he said. "He's stayed selective. And a lot of times as your reputation or track record evolves, you realize what they're trying to do. Let's face it, they pitched around him two or three times in that last series. That's going to happen some more. And not letting them get him out of the zone (is important). But the problem is a guy hits the ball (a few inches) off the plate, hits it away down the corner for a double.

"These guys have great range with the bat and you don't want to take that aggressiveness from them, but he's had some real mature at-bats, where he didn't get emotional during the at-bat and that's what I really like seeing. He hasn't let anything emotionally let him get in the way of having good at-bats."

The Royals and Orioles rank 1-2 in the American League in wins since 2013, as Kansas City has 281 and the Orioles 272. If you go one year further back, to 2012, the O's 365 victories leads all AL clubs.

Joey Rickard struck out all four times up last night and the kid does have six games of two or more strikeouts. He is also batting .328 and went 6-for-10 in the two games before last night.

Jonathan Schoop is suddenly struggling. Since hitting two home runs a week from last night at Texas, he is 0-for-17 over his past five games. His average has dropped from .314 to .212.

The Orioles bullpen has pitched nine scoreless innings the last two games and has an ERA of 1.06 over the last four games.

The Orioles are now 7-3 in games decided by one or two runs.