O's use homer barrage to beat Johnny Cueto and Kansas City

In 27 starts this year with two teams, right-hander Johnny Cueto has allowed only one club to hit three or more homers in a game: the Orioles. They did that for the second time tonight, bashing four homers against the recently struggling right-hander in an 8-2 win over Kansas City.

The victory gives the Orioles a 69-73 record, four wins in five games and back-to-back series wins for the first time since late July. They go 2-1 in consecutive series versus the Yankees and Royals.

Adam Jones started the homer barrage off Cueto with a three-run shot to center in the first. The blast was estimated at 450 feet by Statcast, was Jones' second in two days and 27th on the year. After Kansas City scored twice with two outs in the second, Jonathan Schoop's solo homer in the second made it a 4-2 Orioles lead. Two innings later, Schoop hit another solo shot for a 5-2 edge.

Each time Schoop homered off a Cueto slider as hit his 13th and 14th. It was Schoop's second career two-homer game. The first was May 26, 2014 against Milwaukee.

Chris Davis' solo shot made it 6-2 in the fifth. Davis hit No. 42 on a 0-1 pitch and it was his 106th RBI. Over his last 11 games, Davis is 16-for-36 (.444) with seven homers and 14 RBIs. Davis has 23 homers and 54 RBIs in 54 games in the second half. The homer was also Davis' 91st all-time at Camden Yards, placing him a tie for third in ballpark history with Brady Anderson.

The O's added two runs in the eighth, including a Jones RBI double, which gave him a four-RBI night.

The Orioles have hit two or more homers in eight of their past 10 games, hitting 24 in that span. They scored 28 runs and hit 10 homers in this series.

Cueto gave up 11 hits and eight runs (seven earned) over 6 1/3 innings. In two starts versus the Orioles this year, he allowed 19 hits and 14 runs (13 earned) and gave up seven homers. Cueto is 0-5 with an ERA of 9.57 over his past five Kansas City starts.

So Cueto allows seven homers in 11 1/3 innings versus the Orioles this year. In his other seven starts for Kansas City, he has allowed just two homers in 45 innings.

Wei-Yin Chen settled in after that second inning. He went seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits and 105 pitches to improve to 9-7 with an ERA of 3.44. It was a much-needed longer outing from an O's rotation that had seen the starter fail to pitch at least six innings in 12 of the previous 13 games.

The Orioles welcome Boston on Monday night when Kevin Gausman (2-6, 4.43 ERA) pitches against left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (9-5, 4.05 ERA) in a matchup of former top-rated Orioles pitching prospects.

On the farm tonight: Triple-A Norfolk rallied for a 6-5 win at Columbus to force a fifth and deciding game in that series on Monday at Columbus at 6:35 p.m. Terry Doyle will start for the Tides.

Norfolk trailed 5-2 heading to the seventh inning and was nine outs from its season being over. But Rey Navarro hit a two-run homer that inning and it was a 5-4 game. In the top of the ninth, Andy Wilkins, just acquired by the Orioles a week ago, doubled in two runs with one out. That gave the Tides the 6-5 lead and Oliver Drake closed it out in the last of the ninth. The win was Norfolk's fourth this season when trailing after eight innings.