Orioles still struggling with RISP (Cruz homers again, Chen out of game)

Nick Markakis snapped an 0-for-14 skid tonight with a leadoff single in the first inning off Royals starter Yordano Ventura. Time to start another hitting streak. That's one in a row. Manny Machado also singled in the first. He was 5-for-31 in his last eight games before tonight's game. Adam Jones bounced into a double play to kill that rally. Through May 1, the Orioles were batting .315 with runners in scoring position. In the 13 games dating back to May 2, including Jones' at-bat tonight, the Orioles are only 16-for-87 (.184) with RISP. The Orioles were 0-for-12 with RISP in the first two games of the series against Detroit before going 4-for-9 yesterday, their first game with more than two hits since both ends of the May 1 doubleheader against the Pirates. I talked about pitching around Billy Butler in an earlier blog entry. Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen almost hit him in the bottom of the first inning. Not quite what I had in mind...but OK. Just keep it away from his head. Butler bounced out to shortstop J.J. Hardy to end the inning. Maybe Chen is actually in his head. Hardy has hit safely in eight of his last nine games after his double in the second inning. After starting the season 2-for-10, catcher Steve Clevenger was batting .325/.372/.500 in his last 11 games since April 21 before lining to center field in his first at-bat. He's behind the plate tonight because the Royals are starting a right-hander and manager Buck Showalter is in a platoon frame of mind. If you caught "O's Xtra" on MASN earlier tonight, you saw Matt Wieters catching Bud Norris' bullpen session. Wieters handed the ball to bench coach John Russell rather than throw it back to Norris. Got to rest that arm. The Orioles are 9-10 at home and 11-8 on the road. Pretty sure it's supposed to be the other way around. The Orioles are 7-6 in the first game of a series and 7-6 in the last game. Keep in mind that the Orioles are 12-7 when they score first and 8-11 when their opponent scores first. Update: Chris Davis walked to lead off the top of the fourth and Nelson Cruz hit his 12th home run of the season to break a scoreless tie. Yordano Ventura tried to blow a 95 mph fastball past Cruz. Lesson learned. Update: Darren O'Day replaced Chen with one out in the fifth inning and stranded two runners. O'Day hadn't entered a game this season before the seventh. By the way, he's not closing tonight. Chen allowed one run and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, with one walk and one strikeout. He threw 95 pitches, 61 for strikes. It doesn't count as a quality start, but he left with a 2-1 lead.