The Baltimore Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals (38-59) on Sunday with an 8-2 win. The Orioles went 4-2 on the homestand and have a 7-3 record so far in the month of July. With the win, the Orioles broke the curse of the quatro, finally putting together a four-game winning streak.
The game was not all sunshine and roses, however. The Orioles have lost Blaze Alexander (2 for 2, 2 R, BB) for an undetermined amount of time as a result of a non-displaced fracture of his left hand. Alexander was hit by a 95.5 mph 4-seam fastball from KC’s Lucas Erceg in the seventh inning after Samuel Basallo (1 for 5) tagged Erceg for 404 ft. homerun to center field. Alexander and Erceg exchanged words and the obligatory dance between benches and bullpens occured before order was restored.
O’s starter Shane Baz did not have his best on Sunday. He needed 104 pitches (70 K’s) to navigate 4.2 innings and allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, on 7 hits and struck out 9 of the 22 batters he faced. Unfortunately he was out of the game when his teammates broke th game open with a 5-run sixth inning.
The Orioles scored their first two runs in the second inning in response Isaac Collins‘ RBI-triple following an Alexander throwing error in the top of the inning. With Alexander on first and one out, Leody Taveras (2 for 4, 2 R, 3 RBI) hit a 448 ft. homerun to center field that landed short of the batter’s eye.
The contest was tied at 2-2 until the sixth inning. The Orioles had runners on first and second with one out when Taveras delivered a RBI-double. Jeremiah Jackson (1 for 2, R), pinch hitting for Jackson Holliday (0 for 1, BB), then delivered a RBI ground rule double. Taveras scored on a balk by KC’s Matt Strahm. Gunnar Henderson (3 for 5) followed that with a RBI-single and scored on a Pete Alonso (1 for 5) single; Alonso was thrown out at second trying to turn the hit into a double.
Grant Wolfram (2-2) was credited with the win for his 0.2 inning, one strike out effort across the sixth and seventh innings.
Even though Kansas City is tied with the Los Angeles Angels for the worst record in MLB, a win is a win. The test of the Orioles’ moxie comes in their performance coming out of the All-Star break.
2026 Record: 46-51, 2 games ahead of their 2025 record (43-52) at the All-Star break
Next Game: Fri. 7/17 @ 8:10 pm @ Houston Astros
