O's game blog: The series finale with Kansas City

The Orioles will look to win the series this afternoon here at Camden Yards against the Kansas City Royals. The Orioles are 12-11 on the season, with three wins in their last four games, four wins in their last six and seven wins in their last 11 games. After going through a seven-game stretch recently where O's starters pitched fewer than six innings six times, the O's have now gotten three straight starts of six innings or more. Wei-Yin Chen went seven innings last night to give the Orioles just their seventh quality start of the year and their fourth outing of seven innings or more by a starter. Miguel Gonzalez (1-1, 5.40 ERA) gets the start for the Orioles today. Since giving up seven runs in his first start, Gonzalez has pitched to an ERA of 2.70 his past three starts. Right-hander James Shields (2-2, 1.91 ERA) will pitch for Kansas City. He has four quality starts on the season and has given up just one earned run in each of his past four starts, with an ERA of 1.35 in that time. The Royals do have some pretty good pitching. After scoring three or fewer runs in nine of their 10 home games this season, will the O's offense finally break out at home today? Another Manny hit, but not many here yet: Manny Machado added another hit for Single-A Frederick today, even without me being there to actually see it. He singled to right in the last of the first this afternoon, and is now 5-for-9 (.556) in his first three games with the Keys. Here in Baltimore, the Orioles have not done much against Shields and trail 2-0 after three innings. The O's only hit should have been caught. Shields was about to field a pop-up off the bat of David Lough but let it fall for a single in the third. Shields has fanned three O's today, and he has been on a strikeout roll. Over his previous two starts, he fanned 21 batters in 14 innings. Machado drives in two: Machado didn't get many chances to hit with runners in scoring position in his first two Frederick games, but he came up with a two-run double in his second at-bat today. Make that 6-for-10 for Manny in three games so far. Yep, he did it again: Machado with another double. This one came in his third at-bat. So, he is 3-for-3 this afternoon with two doubles. Machado has five extra-base hits in three games and is 7-for-11. At Camden Yards, Omar Infante did it again. His two-run homer in the seventh off Evan Meek gives him a six RBIs on the day, tying a career-high. He began the game with 11 RBIs on the year. His home run increased the Royals' lead to 6-2. Will Manny be here during the Pittsburgh series that starts Tuesday?