Mychal Givens on his slider (O's lose 6-1)

KANSAS CITY - The Orioles took a 1-0 lead into the last of the fourth inning today at Kauffman Stadium. If they win, they'll take the series and improve to 12-5.

Manny Machado, the league's leading hitter at .397, walked with one out in the first against Yordano Ventura. He reached second on Adam Jones' infield single and scored on Mark Trumbo's two-out single to left.

Trumbo began today second to Machado in the AL in batting average at .381. That was his team-leading 16th RBI and all have come on the road.

Mike Wright has begun his start today throwing well, with three scoreless innings on 41 pitches. He stranded runners on first and second with one out in the second and stranded a runner at third with one out in the third.

Kansas City is 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position against Wright, who began this outing 1-1 with a 5.73 ERA.

But K.C. got even at 1-1 when Alex Gordon hit an opposite field homer to left. He hit No. 2 on a 92 mph fastball that just made it over the left field wall.

Before today's game, reliever Mychal Givens talked about his slider, how that pitch is so important to him and how it was so big in the game last night. The right-hander came on with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth with the O's ahead 7-3 and Kauffman Stadium rocking. Then he used that sharp slider to strike out two right-handed hitters, Salvador Perez and Omar Infante.

Right-handed batters are 3-for-24 (.125) against Givens with 14 strikeouts. That slider makes him so good against righty batters.

"Yeah. Developed that slider last year, that's what helped me last year with my strikeout rate," Givens said. "It helps with my fastball, just being able to do that and having the confidence to do that to Perez 2-2 and Infante 3-2 in a tight situation, just going out there and having the confidence and going out there and attacking.

"I believe I can throw it at any count. And that's a pitch you better have some comfortability that you can throw any pitch in any count."

Givens said he also gains confidence with Buck Showalter's trust in him to put him into key situations

"Yeah, it's really nice to have trust from Buck in putting me in that situation," he said. "At the same time, we are relievers and we take pride in that. That's why I feel like our bullpen is one unified group. We take pride each time we go out there, a clean inning or helping the pitcher before us. We take the baton and try to do what we do best."

Givens is 1-0 with an ERA of 3.00 over nine innings and has 16 strikeouts. He has not allowed an earned run over his last seven games, spanning seven innings.

Update: With two outs and none on in the last of the sixth, Eric Hosmer lined a home run into the right field corner. Kansas City takes a 2-1 lead on his second homer of the year, which went only 341 feet. He hit an 0-1 curveball to give the Royals the lead. Wright is at 87 pitches through six innings.

Update II: The Royals opened a 6-1 lead scoring four runs in the last of the seventh. Wright started the inning at 87 pitches and Alex Gordon reached on an infield single. An RBI double to left by Christian Colon made it 3-1. Jarrod Dyson dropped a sac bunt, but Chris Davis took a gamble, threw to third and got the out, which was confirmed via replay review. But then No. 9 hitter Drew Butera doubled to left for a 4-1 lead that ended Wright's outing.

Dylan Bundy came on and could not get out of the inning before two more runs scored on RBI singles by Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain. The Royals turned a close game into a 6-1 lead.

Wright goes 6 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and five runs with no walks and four strikeouts. He threw 99 pitches, 67 for strikes.

Kelvin Herrera comes on to pitch the eighth for K.C. Ventura had a strong day allowing three hits and one run over seven innings. The Orioles have had just one hit since the first inning.

Update III: Kansas City beat the Orioles 6-1 to take the final game of the weekend set. The Orioles fall to 11-6 and lose their second series of the season. In the two losses, they were held to two runs on five hits on Friday and one run on four hits today.

Manny Machado's 16-game hitting streak ended as he went 0-for-3. He fell one game short of tying Davey Johnson for the longest hitting streak to begin a season in team history. Now it is on to Tampa for the Orioles for three games with the Rays starting Monday night.