Adam Jones on sixth inning: "It happened so fast you can't even talk about it"

KANSAS CITY - The Orioles are a .500 team for the first time since July 27. Innings snowball and they can't dig out from under the storm.

The Royals scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth tonight and cruised to an 8-3 win at Kauffman Stadium, handing the Orioles their sixth loss in the last seven games.

Ubaldo Jimenez retired nine in a row and suddenly lost command of his fastball. The Orioles' offense shut down after Steve Clevenger's RBI double in the fourth, with Kansas City pitchers retiring the last 16 batters.

Jimenez posted a 2.81 ERA in 17 starts before the break. He's posted a 7.65 ERA in eight starts in the second half.

What happened again tonight?

"He was pitching well," said manager Buck Showalter. "He just started elevating some fastballs and they made him pay for it. He was really commanding the ball well and just didn't that inning. He had one pitch, I think Matt (Wieters) had called for a split to (Omar) Infante that was a high fastball that hurt him."

The first of Infante's two triples tonight plated two runs in the sixth, and he raced home on Jonathan Schoop's throwing error.

When it rains, it floods.

All the runs scored with two outs, adding to the level of frustration.

"I'm sure it does," Showalter said. "You're a pitch away from getting out of there and he had been making it most of the night. I thought he was carrying a good, crisp fastball the whole game, but we had five hits. You always tip your hat to the opposition, but you get a little tired of doing that.

"It was a nice moment for (Kris) Medlen. It's been a long fight back for him. You take that in."

Asked what happened to the offense, Showalter replied, "They pitched well and we didn't swing the bats well. Our guys are pushing and they know we've got to get it going. It's not usually a good recipe against good pitchers."

Jimenez was a good pitcher in the first half. He hasn't returned to that level.

"He's had some very good periods like you saw tonight where he's pitched real well and just hasn't been able to carry it over the long haul," Showalter said. "Like most starting pitchers, it's about command of the fastball. He was doing real well with it and it got away from him."

It got away with two outs and the Orioles still holding a 3-1 lead.

"That's the tough thing about baseball, everything can change. We were one out away," Jimenez said.

"I probably started leaving the ball a little bit up in the zone and they started putting a good swing on it. I don't think the pitch to Moustakas was a bad pitch. That's what I wanted to throw, the pitch up and in. The big mistake I made was 0-2 pitch to Infante. Supposed to be up and in, I left it right down the middle.

"That's what hurt the most. Especially, I have Infant 0-2, supposed to put him away. But I made a big mistake and put the team in a bad position."

Jimenez blamed his mechanics for his ineffectiveness in the second half, but he noted improvement tonight. It just didn't show in the final score.

"I've been struggling a little with my mechanics, but tonight I felt really good with it," he said. "It wasn't about mechanics or anything. It was just, made a couple mistakes that cost the game."

The clubhouse was quiet again tonight. You won't find players losing their cool despite the mounting losses and growing frustration.

"We're grown men, not kids," said center fielder Adam Jones, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning. "We can't go around here and yell and scream at somebody like you do kids. Hey, we're grown men. We know what we need to do. We know the objective. We know how to do it. We're major league players. We're the cream of the crop. So we just really just have to jell and get it done. There ain't no other way."

The Royals strung together seven hits in a row with two outs in the sixth.

"It happened so fast you can't even talk about it," Jones said. "That was a quick inning, man. They were aggressive. They put up seven, in what, about 15 pitches? They were aggressive. Tip your cap to their aggressiveness. They drove some balls."

Jimenez was an out away from getting out of the inning unscathed. Mike Moustakas hit a two-run homer to tie the game and the Royals wouldn't let up.

"He was throwing the ball really, really well," Jones said. "It was just that one pitch and Moose put a good swing on it. It was a ball tailing back over the middle of the plate. It was a good pitch for Ubaldo. He had been throwing that all night and Moose was able to get that head out and drive it, tied the game up and then hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.

"It's part of it. They're grinding it out. They're in a unique situation, just like we were looking up. They're at the top.

"There's a lot of games left. I know it's a frustrating loss, but we can't hang our heads. Just come back tomorrow and do exactly what we did, start off the game like we did."

Schoop marveled at how quickly the Royals broke open the game.

"They put some good at-bats together," he said. "They came through. They started a rally. They squared some balls up. There's nothing we could do.

"The guy made some good pitches. We scored early and we kept battling. They made some good pitches against us. We didn't do too much after the fourth."

The Orioles believe they still have a roll in them. It just takes one win to get it started. In the meantime, they've fallen 2 1/2 games behind for the second wild card.

"It's started getting better already," Schoop said. "I think we played a good game today, but they put some good at-bats together and scored a lot of runs in the sixth inning, I feel like we're close. We play hard every day. We come out trying to win every day. Come out tomorrow and play hard again."

Said Jimenez: "You can't be looking at what happened tonight, what happened in the days before. You have to keep moving forward. That's the only thing you have to live for and that's moving forward."

More roster moves are coming. Clevenger is going on paternity leave and a reliever may be optioned. Jorge Rondon threw two scoreless innings tonight.

"We'll have another player coming in tomorrow," Showalter said. "At least one."