Though the Baltimore Orioles haven’t had much cause for celebration this season, they still remember what to do in the wake of a victory.
Mark Trumbo delivered a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning, Chris Davis homered and Baltimore beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 Wednesday night to end a seven-game losing streak.
Jonathan Schoop had two hits and scored twice for the Orioles, who lost 18 of their previous 21 games.
“One game, it’s good to come in the clubhouse and have people feel good about themselves and shake hands and listen to some form of music I had nothing to do with picking out,” manager Buck Showalter said with a thin smile.
The victory came courtesy of Trumbo and Davis, a pair of sluggers striving to regain the form they showed two years ago. Trumbo was playing his eighth game of the season following a quadriceps injury and Davis hit his second homer in two nights after connecting only twice in his first 31 games.
Davis took extra batting practice before the game, and ended up ripping an opposite-field, three-run drive in the fourth inning to give Baltimore a 3-2 lead.
“Chris has got a couple adjustments that he’s trying to make and it’s looked good,” Showalter said. “He had a big blow for us tonight.”
Lucas Duda homered and drove in three runs for the Royals.
With two outs in the eighth, Manny Machado legged out a slow roller to third base for an infield single and Schoop sent him to third with a double. Trumbo then hit a liner up the middle that knocked Kansas City pitcher Kevin McCarthy (3-1) off his feet.
“It felt great. Happy to come through,” Trumbo said. “I think we played a nice game tonight. Did a lot of things really well.”
McCarthy absorbed his first loss in 55 big league appearances.
“I made some mistakes to Schoop, then just too middle of the plate to Trumbo,” he lamented.
Richard Bleier (3-0) worked two innings and Brad Brach got three outs for his fourth save, striking out Jon Jay to end it with runners on second and third.
Orioles starter Andrew Cashner gave up three runs and six hits in six innings, his sixth straight outing without a win.
Kansas City rookie Eric Skoglund allowed three runs and five hits over 6 1/3 innings in his 11th career start.
“I thought Skoglund threw the ball great,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “The one mistake to Davis, he’s such a strong hitter he powered it out the other way.”
Unlike on Tuesday night, when the first eight Royals reached base in a 10-run first inning, Cashner kept Kansas City hitless into the fourth. With two outs, Salvador Perez singled and Duda ripped an 0-1 pitch over the center-field wall.
In the bottom half, singles by Adam Jones and Schoop preceded a two-out shot by Davis.
Kansas City tied it in the sixth when Jorge Soler doubled and scored on a two-out bloop single by Duda. The Royals then loaded the bases before Cashner retired Alcides Escobar on a comebacker.
