Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Ty Wigginton hit two sacrifice fly balls, including the game-winner in the 11th, helping the Baltimore Orioles snap a five-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Nick Markakis and Corey Patterson both homered for Baltimore, which announced on Thursday that Buck Showalter will take over as manager next week. Brian Roberts went 2-for-6 and scored twice in the win.
Brian Matusz continued his struggles, allowing five runs in 3 1/3 innings, but was spared the losing decision. David Hernandez (5-7) pitched two scoreless innings for the win, and Alfredo Simon earned his 15th save.
Yuniesky Betancourt had two hits and drove in a run for the Royals, who saw their losing streak reach five. Jason Kendall and Rick Ankiel each added two hits in the loss.
Kyle Davies yielded four runs (three earned) in a 5 2/3-inning start, walking four and fanning three.
With Blake Wood (0-2) beginning his second inning of work in the 11th, Cesar Izturis worked a leadoff walk and moved to third on Roberts' single to right.
"It just boils down to a leadoff walk," Wood said. "You just can't do that (with the) game tied like that. I just trying to be a little too fine."
Markakis sent a ground ball to second, but Mike Aviles was able to throw out Izturis trying to score. Izturis remained in a rundown long enough for Roberts to gain third base, and he scored on Wigginton's deep fly ball to left.
Simon came on to save the game, but yielded a leadoff single to Aviles, who was quickly erased on Ankiel's double play groundout. Betancourt kept the game alive with a base hit, but Alex Gordon lined out to first to end the game.
The Orioles scored single runs in each of the first three innings to build a lead.
Roberts led off the game with a double and later scored on Wigginton's sacrifice fly in the first, and Izturis' RBI fielder's choice groundout doubled the lead in the second.
Markakis led off the third with a homer before the Royals stormed back with five runs in the fourth.
Matusz quickly allowed the bases to become loaded on a pair of walks and a double to start the inning, and he issued another walk to Wilson Betemit to force home KC's first run. Aviles followed with a sacrifice fly before Ankiel's single again loaded the bases.
Mark Hendrickson came in from the bullpen to protect the 3-2 lead, but Betancourt greeted him with an RBI single. Betemit also scored on the play on an error in the outfield, and Gordon followed with another run-scoring hit for a 5-3 contest.
Baltimore, though, came back to tie the game.
In the sixth, Felix Pie walked with one away and moved to third on an error by Betancourt. Patterson followed with an RBI fielder's choice groundout to cut the Orioles' deficit to one.
Patterson evened the contest in the eighth with a two-out solo blast off Robinson Tejeda.
"For me, (Tejeda) just kept pumping fastballs," Patterson said. "Going over the scouting report on him, we knew he had a good fastball. So I told myself to just say 'heater.' In the back of my mind, I thought he was going to throw me something off-speed and I kept fouling them. He didn't and obviously during that at-bat, when you see the same pitch, you're going to get a pretty good track on it. I saw it well and it went over the fence."
The Orioles also made a roster shakeup on Thursday, trading third baseman Miguel Tejada to San Diego in exchange for a minor league pitcher...The Orioles lead the season series, 2-1...Kansas City had won each of Davies' last four outings...Showalter will take over on Monday and manage his first game on Tuesday.