Orioles' losing streak reaches six as they fall 3-2 at Kansas City

The stakes were not nearly as high as they were last October, but the Orioles lost another one-run game tonight at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City took an early 3-0 lead and held off the Orioles 3-2 tonight. The O's losing streak has now reached six - a season high. This is the club's longest losing streak since September of 2013. The Orioles are 62-63, falling under .500 for the first time since July 26 when they were 48-49.

The Orioles have scored three runs or fewer for six consecutive games, the longest such streak of the year. They've scored a total of 15 runs in the six games. The Orioles have lost their past four games decided by one run, and they're 17-23 on the year in one-run games.

After coming from behind to win last night, tonight the Royals played from ahead. They scored once in the second and twice in the third to lead 3-0 against O's right-hander Miguel Gonzalez.

Kendrys Morales blasted a 472-foot homer on a fastball for the 1-0 lead in the second. He had been 0-for-9 in his career versus Gonzalez. In the third, Kansas City added runs on an Eric Hosmer groundout and a Mike Moustakas single. Gonzalez needed to throw 39 pitches that inning.

He went just 4 1/3 innings tonight, working 5 1/3 innings or less for the 10th time in his last 13 outings. Gonzalez allowed six hits and three runs to fall to 9-10 with an ERA of 4.78. Since coming off the disabled list in late June, Gonzalez is 4-6 with an ERA of 6.46 in 12 starts.

O's starting pitchers began the day with an ERA of 4.36 to rank 13th in the American League, ahead of only Detroit and Boston.

Down 3-0, the Orioles scored twice off left-hander Danny Duffy in the top of the fourth. Matt Wieters walked with two outs and went to third on a Steve Pearce single. The O's then got back-to-back RBI singles by Jonathan Schoop and Caleb Joseph to pull within 3-2.

The O's could not get the tying run, however. Joseph lined out to deep right with two on and two out in the sixth. An inning later, after Gerardo Parra's two-out double, Kelvin Herrera fanned Adam Jones on a 100 mph fastball to strand the possible tying run. Wade Davis closed it out in the ninth as Kansas City improved to 21-11 in one-run games.

The Orioles are 4-10 in their past 14 regular season games versus the Royals. They have lost eight in a row to K.C., counting the American League Championship Series. The Royals improved to 77-48. They have won 12 of 14 at home and are 21-5 in their 26 games at Kauffman Stadium, where they are 44-20 for the season.

On Wednesday night, Wei-Yin Chen (7-6, 3.13 ERA) pitches against right-hander Johnny Cueto (9-8, 2.70 ERA).