Swept away at the K: Royals win 9-1, complete sweep

KANSAS CITY - Well it at least started well for the Orioles this afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. Shortstop Jonathan Villar hit an opposite-field homer to left to provide a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. It went downhill pretty fast after that.

If this weekend was about determining which team most deserved the top draft pick in 2019 by being the worst this year, there was some separation this weekend. The Kansas City Royals beat the Orioles 9-1 this afternoon to complete a three-game sweep of the Orioles. It included two blowout wins a walk-off win Saturday night.

The Royals are 45-91 and the Orioles are 40-97. The O's began the weekend "leading" the race for the worst record and No. 1 pick by 2 ½ games. Now 5 ½ games separate the teams.

The Orioles not only lost today, but looked really bad doing so. They made three errors. They got just the one run and just seven in this series. They had scored 29 runs in a sweep of Toronto in the series before this one.

The Orioles were swept in a series of three or more games for the 15th time in 2018. Today they became the sixth team in Orioles history to record 97 or more losses.

But it was 1-0 when Villar drove a first-pitch fastball from Royals right-hander Jorge Lopez out to left three batters into this game. It was his 11th homer of the year and fifth with the Orioles on a ball that went 415 feet.

That was about it for the offensive highlights. They added five hits - all singles - after the home run. The Orioles are 2-33 when scoring one run or less.

Kansas City used three singles against O's right-hander David Hess to tie it 1-1 in the second inning. In the third the O's defense contributed to the Royals' three-run inning. Whit Merrifield led off with a single and stole second. Alex Gordon singled and moved him to third. Then an error on Hess on a pickoff throw moved both runners up a base and the Royals led 2-1. Jorge Bonafacio's RBI double made it 3-1. He would score to make it 4-1 as a result of two errors on one play. Hess threw to try and pick him off at second and the ball went off the glove of Villar for an error pitcher. Then second baseman Breyvic Valera tried to throw out the runner going for third and that was another error scoring Bonafacio. Yep, it was messy. And ugly.

The Royals added one against Hess in the fourth and four in the eighth off Mike Wright Jr. to cap a weekend where they outscored the Orioles 23-7.

Hess falls to 3-9 with an ERA of 5.27. Over four innings he gave up nine hits and five runs (four earned) with no walks and three strikeouts on 76 pitches. Hess had thrown six scoreless in his last start. His ERA was 1.42 his previous three starts and 2.19 his previous four before a step back today. The O's have just one quality start their past seven games.

Kansas City had not won more than three in a row before this series began and now has a five-game win streak and wins in seven of its last eight games. The Orioles have lost three in a row, 11 of 14 and 18 of the last 23. They have lost seven straight on the road where they are 16-53.

Maybe the Orioles can pick up the pieces in Seattle where they begin a series on Monday night. Should they get swept three games there, this O's team would become the third in club history to lose 100 games.