Notes, quotes and today's game

Did you sleep fast?

It's recommended with a day game following a night game. You can't toss and turn with a short turnaround.

You may need a raft to get from your car to the ballpark. The forecast calls for rain most of the day and the Orioles could be forced to play a doubleheader on Sunday.

I don't have inside weather information and the Orioles haven't laid out their postponement plans, but the Royals are making their only trip to Baltimore.

The expanded roster has stayed the same with Triple-A Norfolk and Double-A Bowie in the playoffs. The Orioles are carrying 30 players with Miguel Gonzalez on the disabled list.

Manager Buck Showalter won't reveal the club's future call-up plans, but pitcher Tyler Wilson could be summoned. Wilson allowed one run over five innings last night, as the Tides evened their series with Columbus.

"I don't know for sure," Showalter said. "I'd say ... I don't want them to read about that. They've got enough challenges.

"We've looked at it, how many and who, but I don't think I'm going to go out there. Let them play. I know probably what we're going to do. There will be somebody."

Chris Davis has walked in a season-high six consecutive games, totaling eight free passes, which leads to the question of whether he's seeing the ball better or opposing pitchers are trying to work around him.

"I think it's both," Showalter said. "One thing about power, it always seems to bring up walk totals. Mark Reynolds might have been hitting .200 or whatever, but he always walked. So what drives guys being careful around the strike zone?

"You get some contact hitters who walk a lot, but that's why when you see a guy like (Miguel) Cabrera, who hits for an average, doesn't strike out and walks, those guys are just monsters to deal with offensively. Like Frank Thomas all those years. He either walked or got a hit, and he didn't strike out much."

"Obviously, Chris knows when they're going to attack him and when they're not. But it's funny how power drives the walk total, it seems like. That's why the argument about the strikeouts, the people who take the other side of it, if you're walking, the strikeouts don't matter as much. And how many people are there like Frank Thomas and Cabrera who walk, don't strike out, hit for average and hit for power?"

The Royals reversed their starters for the last two games of the series. Yordano Ventura pitches this afternoon, with Johnny Cueto taking the mound on Sunday.

Davis is 0-for-6 with five strikeouts against Ventura, who's been a handful for the Orioles in three career starts. He's 2-1 with a 0.89 ERA, with two runs and 28 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings.

Ventura shut out the Orioles on two hits over six innings on Aug. 27 in Kansas City, walking four batters and striking out 11. In his only career start at Camden Yards, he blanked the Orioles on seven hits and struck out eight batters in eight innings.

The current Orioles are 14-for-70 (.200) against Ventura. J.J. Hardy is 4-for-8 with a double, Paul Janish is 2-for-2 and Adam Jones is 2-for-10 with a home run and four strikeouts.

Ventura allowed two earned runs or fewer in five consecutive starts before giving up four runs and walking five batters over 5 1/3 innings in his most recent outing against the Twins.

Chris Tillman has lost his last four starts and remains stuck on nine victories. He's allowed a combined 13 runs and 16 hits over 7 2/3 innings in his last two outings.

He's just glad to be out of Toronto. Tillman served up three home runs in three innings and allowed six runs and eight hits over three innings on Sept. 6.

Tillman surrendered four runs and nine hits over six innings in an Aug. 27 start in Kansas City. His ERA in his last three starts has climbed from 4.51 to 5.15.

Tillman is 1-2 with a 5.79 ERA in three regular season starts against the Royals. Alcides Escobar is 6-for-17 with a double and home run, Alex Rios is 5-for-16 with a double and home run, Mike Moustakas is 5-for-13 with a double and home run, Kendrys Morales is 5-for-11 with a double, Alex Gordon is 4-for-15 with a double and two home runs, Ben Zobrist is 8-for-40 with two doubles and three home runs, and Eric Hosmer is 1-for-11.

Here are some leftovers from last night's wild and crazy 14-8 win:

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Mets were the last team to hit two grand slams in the same inning versus the Cubs on July 16, 2006 - Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd in the sixth.

The Orioles are 39-9 when Caleb Joseph has at least one RBI and 19-2 when he records two or more.

Anyone remember that Dariel Alvarez hit his first major league home run last night?

Steve Clevenger on the Orioles releasing some frustration:
"Definitely. You get some confidence going for everybody going into the rest of the series. We swung the bats really good. We came together as a team. Being down two runs and then Nolan (Reimold) coming up big with that grand slam to go ahead and give us a little boost going into it and get everybody going. That's what it takes sometimes as a team to get the line moving and get some confidence."

Davis on whether the 10-run inning was a release:
"Little bit. Like I said, it's just as an offense you take a pride in having the kind of showing that we did against a bullpen like that. We all know what kind of arms they have. They have a reputation for having a great pitching staff. And for us to get that many runs in that short a time was big."

Reimold on Gerardo Parra telling him to do his Carlton Fisk impression as his fly ball approached the foul pole:
"A lot of guys did, but I didn't see it hit the pole, so I wasn't sure. Glad it worked out."