Royals 5, Orioles 3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Yordano Ventura struck out 11 and Paulo Orlando homered as the Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 on Thursday afternoon.
The Royals took three of four from the Orioles and have not lost a series since dropping two of three in Detroit on Aug. 4-6. Kansas City has won nine of its last 10 games against its 2014 American League Championship Series opponent.
Ventura (9-7), who has not lost since July 20, allowed two singles and four walks but needed 98 pitches to get through six scoreless innings.
Kansas City opened the scoring in the fourth when third baseman Mike Moustakas led off with a double and catcher Salvador Perez brought him home with a looping single to left. Right fielder Alex Rios doubled to move Perez to third. Perez then scored on left fielder Orlando' sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
Moustakas made it 3-0 in the fifth with an RBI single that drove in designated hitter Ben Zobrist.
Orlando, making just his second start since Aug. 21, connected in the sixth for his fifth home run of the season, a one-out solo shot, to improve the Royals' advantage to 4-0.
Shortstop Ryan Flaherty put the Orioles on the board with a leadoff homer in the seventh, his second home run in two days and sixth of the year.
Moustakas capped the Royals' scoring with a two-out single to center in the bottom of the seventh, bringing in pinch-runner Eric Hosmer.
The Orioles cut their deficit to 5-3 in the ninth on doubles by second baseman Jonathan Schoop and catcher Caleb Joseph and an RBI single by third baseman Manny Machado against Royals right-hander Greg Holland, who got center fielder Gerardo Parra to ground out to end the threat.
Baltimore's starting lineup combined to go 4-for-31 at the plate with 13 strikeouts and was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman (9-9), who had a 12-game unbeaten streak snapped in his previous start, went six innings, allowing nine hits and four runs with one walk and one strikeout.
Orioles center fielder Adam Jones left the game in the third with an apparent shoulder injury after running into the left-center field wall in the first inning.
The start of the game was delayed one hour and 35 minutes by rain.
NOTES: Orioles LHP Zach Britton leads major-league relievers in ground-ball percentage (79.5) and ground-ball/fly-ball ratio (8.75). ... Royals RHP Yordano Ventura is unbeaten (4-0) in his last six starts while limiting opponents to a .229 average (33-for-144). ... 1B Eric Hosmer was hitless in his last two games before Thursday and in his last nine at-bats; it was the first time since June 23-24 at Seattle that Hosmer had failed to record a hit in consecutive games. ... RF Gerardo Parra was hitting .340 (89-for-262) since June 11, which leads all major-league hitters (minimum 215 plate appearances). ... 3B Manny Machado had hits in 58 of his last 72 games, hitting .318 (93-for-292) with 30 walks, 15 doubles, 18 homers, 41 RBIs, 49 runs scored and eight stolen bases. ... CF Lorenzo Cain had hits in 11 of his last 12 games at Kauffman Stadium, batting .440 (22-for-50) since July 26.