Bats fall silent against Ventura, O's lose three of four at Kansas City

While he began today with a 4.64 ERA on the year over 20 starts, Kansas City right-hander Yordano Ventura had allowed just three runs over his last three starts. The Orioles got a firsthand look at his recent improvement. Ventura fanned 11 over six scoreless innings this afternoon as Kansas City beat the Orioles 5-3.

The Royals took three of four in this series. While the Orioles hit five homers last night and won 8-5, they scored just eight total runs in the series' other three games.

The Orioles lost a game and their center fielder today, at least for most of this game. Adam Jones crashed hard into the center field wall chasing a Ben Zobrist double in the first inning. In the top of the third, Paul Janish pinch-hit for Jones.

Ventura hit 100 mph five times during a 27-pitch first inning when the Orioles didn't put the ball in play. They drew two walks, but fanned three times. Ventura had fanned nine by the end of the top of the fourth. He allowed just two hits and four walks, throwing 98 pitches to improve to 9-7 with an ERA of 4.41. Ventura is now 2-1 with an ERA of 0.89 in three career starts versus Baltimore.

After a scoreless first three innings, Kansas City went ahead 2-0 in the fourth. Mike Moustakas doubled to start the frame and scored on a Salvador Perez single. Perez advanced to third on an Alex Rios double and scored on Paulo Orlando's sac fly for a 2-0 lead. In the fifth, a Moustakas RBI single made it 3-0, and an inning later, Orlando's solo homer to left-center made it a 4-0 Kansas City lead. Orlando hit No. 5 on an 0-1 fastball.

Moustakas added another RBI single in the seventh to complete a 3-for-4, two-RBI game. He went 8-for-14 with two homers and seven RBIs in the series.

Losing pitcher Chris Tillman went six innings, allowing nine hits and four runs to fall to 9-9 with an ERA of 4.58. Tillman was 7-0 over a 12-start stretch from June 5 to Aug. 17, but now is 0-2 his past two starts.

Down 4-0, the Orioles avoided a shutout when Kelvin Herrera replaced Ventura to start the seventh. Ryan Flaherty led off the inning with his second homer in two days and sixth of the year. They added two runs in the ninth to make it interesting. Jonathan Schoop doubled with one out and scored on Caleb Joseph's two-out double. He scored on a Manny Machado double. That meant the O's brought the potential tying run to the plate with two outs, but Greg Holland finally ended the threat. He got Gerardo Parra to ground out to end the game.

The Orioles fall to 63-64 with their seventh loss in eight games. They have scored just 21 runs in their last nine losses. Kansas City is 79-49 overall, 45-21 at home and 22-6 in its last 28 home games.

The Orioles now move onto Texas to continue this road trip. In the first game of the series there Friday night, Kevin Gausman (2-5, 4.30 ERA) faces left-hander Cole Hamels (1-1, 4.73 ERA).