One night after the Kansas City Royals let a five-run lead slip away in the eighth inning and suffered a heart-wrenching loss, they bounced back behind another strong starting pitching performance, solid defense, timely hitting, and their bullpen put the previous night’s woes behind them with three scoreless innings.
The Royals responded with a 6-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles in front of an announced 5,087 in the finale of a four-game series in Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Thursday night.
The win gave the Royals (63-77) a series split.
Nicky Lopez went 3 for 5 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBI for the Royals, and Hunter Dozier also homered and went 2 for 4 with a double and two runs scored. Michael A. Taylor also had two hits.
Royals left fielder Andrew Benintendi threw out a runner at the plate to keep the Orioles scoreless and record his sixth outfield assist of the season.
Royals starting pitcher Carlos Hernández held the Orioles scoreless for six innings. All three hits he allowed came in the second inning, and he also allowed three walks.
In his last eight starts, Hernández has posted a 1.68 ERA.
Baltimore Orioles left-hander John Means, a native of Olathe, allowed two runs on five hits and two walks in seven innings. He also struck out five.
Means, who has a younger brother currently playing in the Royals’ farm system, graduated from Gardner Edgerton High School as a teammate and classmate of Royals minor-league outfielder Bubba Starling.
Lopez gave the Royals a 1-0 lead in the first inning when he blasted an 0-1 fastball from Means over the right-field wall for his second homer of the season.
The Royals tacked on three more runs in the eighth inning. Dozier’s leadoff double lined into the left-center field gap set the table. Dozier tagged up and advanced to third on a Whit Merrifield flyout, and he scored on Lopez’s RBI single on the ground into right field.
Lopez moved up to second on Salvador Perez’s single, and Lopez advanced to third on a wild pitch. Benintendi’s RBI single up the middle deflected off of second baseman Jahmai Jones and scored Lopez and allowed Perez to go first-to-third.
Carlos Santana’s RBI groundout drove in Perez with the third run of the inning to give the Royals a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.
Dozier smacked a two-run homer in the top of the ninth, adding insurance runs.
The Royals will begin a three-game weekend series in Minneapolis on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. CT. The pitching matchup will feature Royals left-hander Daniel Lynch (4-4, 5.29) against Minnesota Twins right-hander Griffin Jax (3-3, 6.79).
