O's game blog: O's looking for offense as KC series begins

As the Orioles face Kansas City for the next four games, they'll need more offense than they got in an earlier three-game series against this same team. The Orioles lost two of three to the Royals in April at Camden Yards. In that series, they were shutout once and scored six total runs on 20 hits. KC pitchers posted a 1.65 ERA in the series. The Orioles scored just seven runs in three games against Detroit and have scored just nine total the past four games. The Orioles have scored three runs or less in 10 of the last 17 games. A look at how the hitters are doing recently: * Steve Clevenger: Is 8-for-16 during a four-game hitting streak with three doubles and two RBIs. * Nelson Cruz: Over his last 24 games he has hit nine homers and driven in 26 runs. * Chris Davis: Since returning from the DL is 3-for-15 over four games with no homers and one RBI. * J.J. Hardy: Has gone 10 games without an RBI and 53 games and 207 at-bats without a home run. * Adam Jones: Is 14-for-38 (.368) with four homers and eight RBIs during a nine-game hitting streak. * Manny Machado: Is 4-for-16 his last four games after going 1-for-16 in four before that. Has just two multi-hit games in 13 contests since coming off the DL. The Orioles will try to get the bats going and snap a four-game losing streak tonight against the Royals. They have been outscored 20-9 during the losing streak. Random notes: Nelson Cruz gave the O's a 2-0 lead with a fourth-inning two-run homer. It was his 12th homer of the year. It was his fourth homer in his last 11 games and 10th in his past 23. He has 28 RBIs over his past 25 games. Tonight's Royals starter Yordano Ventura is 2-2 with a 2.34 ERA that ranks seventh in the AL. He has the fastest fastball with an average velocity of 96.5 mph among league qualified pitchers. He had an ERA of 1.50 over his first five starts and it's 4.38 his last two. Nick Markakis went 0-for-13 against Detroit after batting .356 during an 18-game hitting streak. Markakis began tonight 2-for-2 with a pair of singles.