Wrapping up the Orioles' 8-3 win over Kansas City

KANSAS CITY - The Orioles beat Kansas City 8-3 tonight and it was a nice response to last night's loss. There were plenty of reasons for the win, including starting pitcher Tyler Wilson's outing, an offense that produced big again and another lockdown game by a bullpen that got big outs.

The Orioles improved to 4-4 on the road and 11-5 overall (.688), the best record in the American League, leaping over the 11-6 Royals.

Let's start with the starter. Wilson, who not thrown more than 44 pitches in his bullpen outings this year, made his first start. He went five innings plus one batter, allowing six hits and three runs. He threw 70 pitches and is 1-0 with an ERA of 2.70.

Manager Buck Showalter was impressed yet again.

"That's been Tyler," he said. "Here's my bullets and I'm gonna let it rip and see what happens. That's what you like about him. That's why winning has followed him around. He likes to compete.

"A big double play ball. Very typical of him. He made a real good pitch on a tough hitter. I'm happy for him. There seem to be good defensive plays made behind guys like him. Things don't seem to bother him mentally. He's very mentally strong and that bodes well up here."

Showalter didn't commit to Wilson getting another start, but it sure seemed like he is inclined to do just that.

Reliever Mychal Givens got a few huge outs in this game. The right-hander came on with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth with the O's ahead 7-3 and Kauffman Stadium rocking. Then he used that sharp slider to strike out two right-handed hitters, Salvador Perez and Omar Infante.

Right-handed batters are 3-for-24 (.125) against Givens with 14 strikeouts. That slider makes him so good against righty batters.

"One of the things is because the fastball is so good, guys have to cheat to get there and they become more susceptible to the breaking ball," Showalter said of Givens. "He's gotten lazy with a couple earlier in the season and got burned for them when he just flipped them over. He can get by with that in Bowie, you can't get by with that here. And he knows that.

"He needs to throw a quality slider and not say, 'Well, they're not looking for this, I'll just flip it in there.' I think that shows some maturity and Matt (Wieters) stayed with it. Matt had a great game."

On offense, so did Chris Davis, who matched his career high with four hits, including a homer. Adam Jones set a career high by drawing three walks. Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop and Hyun Soo Kim had two hits each, and Mark Trumbo drove in four runs.

Trumbo went 3-for-5 and is batting .381 with a team-leading 15 RBIs. His single in the third gave the O's a 3-2 lead and his bloop two-run single to right in the fourth made it 7-2.

"I think one of standouts for me was how patient Jonsey was tonight, taking those walks," Trumbo said. "Obviously C.D. (Davis) swung the bat real well, too. Yeah, just piecing things together. Didn't always hit it on the line. In my case, it was kind of fortunate and it just kind of worked out."

The Orioles lineup has been good throughout one through nine most of the year, but is particularly potent two through five with Machado, Jones, Davis and Trumbo.

"Yeah I think so," Trumbo said of that foursome. "I think the pressure is pretty low with the amount of talent around here. Just focus on what you have to do and everyone will do their part. Just be yourself."

Trumbo also threw some nice praise Wilson's way for an outing that produced his third major league win.

"It was awesome," he said. "Super gusty. He does that every time, though. You know he is not going to walk guys and is going to go right at them. His mentality is everything you would want in any type of pitcher, but especially tonight going out there and being a bulldog and eating some innings."

Wilson's night might have swung on one batter. The Royals thought they had him on the ropes with the bases loaded and Mike Moustakas up in the fifth. Moustakas began today tied for the American League homers lead, but Wilson got him to bounce into a double play to end the threat and quiet a sellout crowd.

"Obviously, he's pretty hot right now, swung the bat pretty well," Wilson said. "Kind of a turning point in the game, decision time in the fifth inning. They had been really aggressive early in at-bats. It's kind of their team's M.O. Wiety (Wieters) did a great job back there of expanding the zone and we didn't cave with a 3-2 slider.

"Once again, the defense turns a double play in a key moment. Even more important was that, you go back an inning and Joey (Rickard) beats out a double play with two outs. We went on to score four after that. That was really the turning point. It shifts over to me managing damage after that with a five-run lead."

So now Wilson waits with the rest us to see if he will stay in the rotation.

"I don't know what my next outing will look like," he said. "I don't know what my role will be. I'll just be ready for when that opportunity does come. I'm sure we will have that conversation at a later date.

"You hate to see a guy go down like that, especially a guy like Yo (Yovani Gallardo), who is a very important guy for us, and we're going to need him down the stretch. Hopefully, this is just a minor thing and he'll be ready to go quickly."