With a team batting average of just .220 with runners in scoring position, the Orioles have come up short in a few clutch spots this year. But tonight Mark Trumbo delivered a key two-run single in the eighth as the Orioles beat Kansas City.
In his eighth game since coming off the disabled list, Trumbo's two-out, two-run single to center broke a 3-3 tie as the Orioles beat the Royals 5-3 to snap a seven-game losing streak.
With the win the Orioles are 9-27 and won for just the second time in 10 games and third in 16. They are 5-21 the last 26 games and improved to 6-11 at home.
With two outs and none on in the eighth, Manny Machado reached on an infield single against right-hander Kevin McCarthy. He went to third on Jonathan Schoop's double. Then Trumbo lined a 1-1 fastball to center to provide the two-run lead. The Orioles were batting .173 with RISP their past 15 games.
After three scoreless to start this game the teams exchanged home runs in the fourth, which ended with the Orioles leading 3-2.
With two outs and none on in the top half, Salvador Perez singled. He scored on Lucas Duda's home run to center which gave Kansas City a 2-0 lead. Duda hit an 0-1 curveball 401 feet for No. 4. It was the 10th homer allowed on the season by Andrew Cashner, who gave up 15 all of last year.
In the home half, Adam Jones and Jonathan Schoop singled to put runners on first and third with one out. Trumbo popped out. But Chris Davis hit a three-run homer to left-center to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. Davis hit No. 4 on a 2-2 fastball at 93.3 mph from Eric Skoglund. Davis has hit three of his four homers this season off left-handed pitchers. Davis has homered off Royals lefties the past two nights.
But the one-run lead lasted only until the top of the sixth when a two-out flared single to left-center by Duda tied the game 3-3. It scored Jorge Soler who hit a leadoff double. Kansas City left the bases-loaded however, when Cashner got Alcides Escobar to ground out.
Cashner went six innings in a no-decision, allowing six hits and three runs with two walks and three strikeouts. Cashner, who had pitched to a 6.97 ERA his previous four starts, threw 111 pitches. His ERA now sits at 4.84.
Lefty Richard Bleier pitched scoreless ball in the seventh and eighth tonight to get the win. He has thrown 19 1/3 scoreless over his past 14 games and he is 3-0 with a 0.40 ERA.
Brad Brach picked up his fourth save. He pitched out of a first and second no outs situation in the ninth and stranded those runners at second and third when he fanned Jon Jay to end the game.
In the series finale on Thursday night, Chris Tillman (1-5, 9.24 ERA) pitches against right-hander Ian Kennedy (1-3, 2.92 ERA).
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