Short starts resume in second half in 9-2 loss (updated)

The Orioles were comfortable going with a 25-man roster tonight in Kansas City following a four-day break that rested and recharged a tired bullpen.

Manager Brandon Hyde didn't want to dip into it early, no matter its condition, but that same break didn't improve the early results of the second-half rotation.

Rookie Keegan Akin fell behind by six runs in three innings and the Orioles lost to the Royals 9-2.

Cedric Mullins singled in his first two at-bats, the only hits against Royals left-hander Danny Duffy in four innings, and the Orioles fell to 28-62. They've lost eight of nine and 24 of 30.

Trey Mancini nailed Duffy below the left knee with a comebacker in the first inning. Shortstop Nicky Lopez retrieved the ball and got the out, and Duffy gutted out four innings before leaving.

Akin never recovered, coming out of the game after the third at 74 pitches. He was making his eighth start and failed to complete five innings for the sixth time. The last two starts have totaled six innings, and Akin's ERA rose to 8.19.

"Obviously not the start I wanted to the second half," Akin said. "I've got some things to work on. Just got to execute pitches better. I feel like the strikes are there, just got to execute it and command the ball a little better.

"The execution part seems to be kind of a common theme lately. It's always been the knock that I didn't throw enough strikes, now they say I'm throwing too many good strikes. Just got to rewatch some of those outings and watch pitch locations and just learn from it. It's just stuff that's fairly new to me at this level. I always kind of got by on talent through the minor leagues and just threw the ball and threw fastballs and challenged guys, and it's obviously a little different level up here."

César Valdez calmed the game for a while and spared the bullpen with three scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked none and struck out two while lowering his ERA to 6.25.

Valdez had been scored upon in his last four appearances, with nine runs in five innings.

"César Valdez picked us up," Hyde said. "Nice to see him have a clean outing. He was grinding and disappointed in his performance the last couple months, and for him to go three scoreless innings, that was huge for us. But it's going to be tough innings the rest of the way, and so we definitely could use some longer starts."

The Orioles were held to six hits, including Pedro Severino's double off Kyle Zimmer in the fifth, solo home run off Jake Brentz in the eighth and single off Scott Barlow in the ninth. Anthony Santander was thrown out at third base to end the game.

Whit Merrifield led off the bottom of the first with a single, moved to second on a ground ball and scored on Salvador Perez's single into right field. Akin committed a balk but struck out the next two batters to keep the score 1-0.

The Orioles began the night 11-41 when their opponent scored first. The deficit kept growing, and Valdez was warming by the second.

Lopez fell behind 1-2 in the second and singled to drive in two runs. A leadoff walk to Jorge Soler and double by former Oriole Hanser Alberto set the table.

Merrifield doubled to score Lopez, advanced on a wild pitch - Severino tried to backhand a ball that bounced in front of him - and came home with two outs on another Perez single for a 5-0 lead.

Andrew Benintendi doubled on the next pitch, Akin's 47th of the game, to send Perez to third base, and Hunter Dozier walked to load the bases with two outs. Soler came up again in the inning and flied to the left field warning track.

Akin threw 17 pitches in the first and 39 in the second. As a MASN graphic showed, opponents registered a .203 average against him between his first and 30th pitches and .385 at 31 and beyond.

Hyde wanted to push Akin through three innings at least, but the left-hander made it challenging by surrendering a leadoff double to Alberto and walking Michael A. Taylor to get Valdez up again. Alberto took third on a fly ball and scored on Merrifield's sacrifice fly, with Santander making a nice running catch on a sore left ankle.

"He just got hit," Hyde said. "I didn't think command was real good, they were pretty much on everything. That was a pretty poor pitch selection. We all know that Alberto is an overly aggressive swinger. Gave him a fastball middle, doesn't make much sense. Then a slider in his second at-bat doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So just poor pitch selection and didn't miss many barrels. Just had a tough night."

Eight of the nine runs came on two-strike pitches.

"Just a lot of balls that were on the plate with two strikes, just unable to put guys away," Hyde said. "Keegan doesn't have overpowering stuff and so the changeup's got to be strike-to-below, the slider's got to be strike-to-ball. He's got to be able to command his fastball. Just didn't have his fastball command. It's 89-92. You've got to be able to command in this league if you don't have overpowering velo, and balls in the heart of the plate with two strikes, you're not going to have a lot of success."

Said Akin: "You're going to have your ups and downs. You get your chance to go out there every five days as a starter, so you've just got to forget about them, take some positive things. Obviously, I'm not happy about it, but confidence-wise I think I'm doing well. You've just got to learn from it. It's a learning process, it's my first full season up here, so it's just day in and day out got to learn and get better and execute when it comes time for the game."

Lopez had a two-run double off Shaun Anderson in the seventh for an 8-1 lead. Austin Hays was charged with an error on a throw that didn't reach a cutoff man and enabled Lopez to take third, and Merrifield followed with his fourth hit.

Mullins led off the top of the first with a looping single into left field and was erased on a double play. He reached on an infield hit leading off the fourth, Hays walked, Duffy threw a wild pitch and Mancini bounced out to score Mullins.

Notes: Triple-A Norfolk's Tyler Nevin and Zach Jarrett (three hits) homered tonight in Memphis, but Kyle Bradish allowed five runs and four hits with four walks in 1 2/3 innings.

Reliever Claudio Custodio allowed two hits in 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Dusten Knight's 1 1/3 scoreless innings lowered his ERA to 0.84.

Single-A Aberdeen's Conner Loeprich allowed seven runs and 10 hits, including two homers, in 1 2/3 innings in a 20-2 loss in Hickory. Andrew Daschbach hit his sixth home run.

The IronBirds were outhit 23-2.

Single-A Delmarva's Noah Denoyer tossed five scoreless innings with three hits, no walks and five strikeouts against the Down East Wood Ducks. Cristopher Cespedes, Andrew Martinez and TT Bowens homered. Bowens produced his 12th.