Friday’s game between the Orioles and Royals was a pitcher’s duel with a pair of excellent starts. Sunday was anything but that.
It seemed like every time Kansas City scored, Baltimore did the same in the ensuing half inning. And vice versa. There were as many lead changes as ties (four).
That was until the seventh inning, when Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino clubbed back-to-back home runs for the lead and the Orioles never responded. They let the Royals score in the final six innings in an 11-6 loss at home, dropping their sixth series of the season.
“That was a tough day,” Brandon Hyde said.
Every batter in Kansas City’s starting lineup reached base. The Royals clubbed a franchise-record seven home runs despite entering the day with the fewest homers in MLB.
Hyde cycled through six pitchers in the series finale with an off day on Monday. The only arm that didn’t allow a run was Keegan Akin.
The damage started against Kyle Gibson, fresh off a five-homer outing in his season debut against the Yankees five days ago. Gibson’s woes keeping the ball in the park continued, as Maikel Garcia started the top of the second with a 395-foot solo home run that began the day’s scoring.
Gibson faced trouble in all four innings he pitched. After escaping unharmed in the first and third innings, he couldn’t do the same in what resulted as his final frame on the mound. Hyde said Gibson, who threw 81 pitches, had an 85-90 pitch range.
Salvador Perez started with a single, the third straight inning the Royals’ leadoff man reached base. Gibson was on the verge of narrowly getting by again, but back-to-back knocks from Hunter Renfroe and Drew Waters gave Kansas City a pair of runs. Both hits came with two outs on two-strike counts.
Bryan Baker later served up a pair of long balls to Jonathan India and Garcia. Yennier Cano did the same to Witt and Pasquantino. Luke Maile blasted his first home run this season off Charlie Morton. Michael Massey added a final blow with a two-run shot off Matt Bowman.
“They’re a team that does a really good job not striking out,” Gibson said. “They make you work on the mound, they don’t give you easy outs.”
Baltimore’s lineup stayed even with Kansas City’s early on. Jackson Holliday started the production with a second inning solo home run, later adding a 422-foot blast in the bottom of the fourth for his first career multi-homer day. The 21-year-old became the third-youngest Oriole with a multi-homer game.
Holliday is slashing .341/.449/.561 over his past 15 games, which started with a grand slam against the Guardians April 16 that broke him out of a 0-for-17 skid.
“I’m just trying to go up there relaxed and confident,” Holliday said. “I think being in a position when I’m ready to launch and being confident and feeling free has been kind of the biggest change for me going up there.”
While Holliday has been arguably Baltimore’s hottest hitter, Ryan O’Hearn has been its most consistent. He’s slugging .600 and has a .979 OPS. O’Hearn especially continued to slug against his former team, blasting a fifth-inning solo shot that gave him his third home run in 11 games versus the Royals, two days after clubbing a go-ahead two-run homer in the series-opener.
O’Hearn’s Sunday homer re-tied him for the team lead with Cedric Mullins, who belted his first home run in more than two weeks three at-bats earlier.
But Baltimore’s lineup still struggled to hit with runners in scoring position, as it has all season.
After Gunnar Henderson roped a one-out double in the bottom of the first, Adley Rutschman flew out and O’Hearn struck out swinging. With Rutschman on second base in the third inning, O’Hearn punched out swinging again. Heston Kjerstad was left stranded on second base in the bottom of the fourth. Rutschman again flew out with a runner on second in the seventh inning.
Down three runs in the bottom of the eighth, the Orioles had runners on first and second with no outs. Coby Mayo popped out, Kjerstad grounded into a force out and Ramón Laureano lined out.
The lineup went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Baltimore is hitting .192 this season with runners in scoring position.
The loss dropped the Orioles to 13-20, their worst start to a season since 2019. They lost 108 games that year.
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