Tuesday baseball: KC at Orioles

Game Preview Orioles (42-56) at Kansas City (39-59) The Orioles offense started to hit the skids beginning in the recent series at New York and that trend continued when the O's began a seven-game homestand Monday vs. Kansas City. The O's were held to three runs by Bruce Chen and two relievers in a 5-3 loss to the Royals. Over their last seven games, the O's have scored just 21 runs and are hitting .252 as a team. Six of the last seven Orioles' losses have been by two runs or less. The O's are just 2-8 since the All-Star break. Over a longer stretch, the Birds have lost 14 of 21 and 19 of 29 games. The O's are 9-6 in their last 15 home games and are 26-22 at home on the season. Tonight they play game two of this series and homestand. Jason Berken (1-8, 6.55) pitches for the O's vs. Kansas City's Brian Bannister (6-7, 3.76) at 7:05 p.m. Monday's loss dropped the O's to a 7-14 record in July. Kansas City came to Camden Yards after losing eight of nine games on a homestand. But Billy Butler led last night's win, going 5 for 5 with two doubles and three RBI. The Royals have lost 11 of their last 13. Tonight KC is looking for its first two-game win streak since taking three in a row from July 4-6. The Orioles are 2-3 on the season vs. KC. Since 2001, Baltimore is 44-18 vs. KC. Nolan Reimold has had four consecutive multi-hit games for the Orioles, going 9 for 13 in that torrid stretch. In the four games, he has three doubles and three stolen bases. Aubrey Huff had two hits Monday, but is just 10 for 66 with only two RBI over his last 16 games. Adam Jones is 1 for 13 the last three games and Luke Scott is one for 18 and 2 for 27 over his last eight games. O's bullpen notes: Albers: 2.42 ERA over 19 games (7ER in 26IP) Baez: 0-2, 5.40 over last 8 games (5ER in 8 1/3IP) Bass: 0.93 ERA over last 4 games (1ER in 9 2/3IP) Hendrickson: 3.03 in 22 games since move to pen Johnson: 7.04 ERA over last 8 games (6ER in 7 2/3IP) Meredith: 2 2/3IP scoreless since joining O's Sherrill: 1.52 ERA over 30 games, 20 of 23 in save chances