O's game blog: Looking for a win in Kansas City

In the opener of an eight-game road trip on Thursday night at Kansas City, the Orioles made up a three-run deficit, but when they fell behind a second time, they could not catch up. They lost 7-5 at Kansas City. The Royals host the second of a four-game set tonight at Kauffman Stadium.

The Orioles (24-34) are now 9-19 in road games. Their offense has now scored 107 runs the last 20 games and 205 over the past 46 games. This is all since the Baltimore offense scored just 24 runs in the season’s first 12 games.

Ryan Mountcastle’s two-run double to center in the O’s fifth tied the game at 4-4. He bashed the ball 107 mph off the bat off K.C. starter, lefty Kris Bubic. This marked Mountcastle’s third consecutive game with an extra-base hit and an RBI, and each of his last five hits have gone for extra bases. This after just 10 of his first 41 hits went for extra bases (24.4 percent) to begin the season.

O’s center fielder Cedric Mullins went 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles. That included an RBI two-bagger in the eighth inning. Six of Mullins' last seven hits have gone for extra bases over his last nine games.

The Orioles are now 5-9 (.357) versus the American League Central - including 2-2 against Kansas City - but are 19-25 (.432) versus all other divisions. They did not homer Thursday after hitting nine longballs in their previous three games, falling to 9-19 when they don’t homer. They’re 15-15 when they do. They fell to 11-3 when recording at least 10 hits this season, and two of those three losses have come versus the Royals. 

Kansas City improved to 19-37 by winning the series opener. The Royals had entered the game having lost three of four, eight of 10 and 15 of their past 19 games.

Kansas City has won back-to-back games despite allowing at least four runs in both, after starting the season 3-31 when allowing at least four in a game. They recorded their first game with multiple home runs since May 27 at Minnesota, snapping an 11-game stretch in which they hit a total of four homers. The Royals have recorded six extra-base hits in their last two games after recording none in their previous two games.

Lefty Bruce Zimmermann (2-4, 4.87 ERA) gets the ball for the Orioles tonight to make his 12th start. In his first seven this year, his ERA was 2.72. But it is 8.57 over his past four games as he has allowed 10 homers and 20 earned runs over 21 innings with an OPS against of 1.104.

Zimmermann allowed just one homer his first six starts in 30 1/3 innings, but has now allowed 12 in 27 innings his past five starts. On Friday against Cleveland he allowed 10 hits and five runs over 5 2/3, and the Orioles are 5-6 in his outings.

Righty Jonathan Heasley (0-3, 4.62 ERA) will make his sixth start of this season and the ninth of his career for Kansas City. For the year, he has thrown 25 1/3 innings, allowing 25 hits with 18 walks to 15 strikeouts with 1.697 WHIP and a 1.4 homer rate.

He has put together back-to-back quality starts, allowing a combined six runs over 12 innings versus Cleveland and Houston. But the Royals are 0-5 in his 2022 starts.

The Orioles rank among American League team leaders for the month of June in runs per game (3rd, 5.57), runs scored (4th, 39), slugging percentage (4th, .458), doubles (T-4th, 15), OPS (5th, .766), home runs (5th, 13), and extra-base hits (5th, 28).