It was a solid all around effort as the Royals collected 17 hits and tallied a six run sixth inning en route to a 9-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday evening, Kansas City picked up victories the past two days to take the series overall. With the win, Kansas City moves to 48-63 on the year now finding themselves just 3.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins who have a late game on the road against the Angels.
Leading the charge was leadoff hitter Alex Gordon going 4-for-5 at the plate. Though Yamaico Navarro had just one hit, he picked up three RBI's including a two run scoring double in the sixth.
After Kansas City took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Baltimore methodically pulled ahead with single runs off Jeff Francis in the third through sixth innings to take a 4-3 lead. Francis was pulled after five innings when he gave up an RBI double to Chris Davis in the top half of the sixth. Francis allowed four runs on 10 hits and didn't factor in the decision.
Blake Wood, Tim Collins, and Joakim Soria combined to pitch four innings of scoreless relief, as the bullpen allowed just three hits the rest of the way. Wood earned the victory and moves to 5-0 on the season.
Zach Britton was charged with the loss for the Orioles as he allowed six runs (four earned) on 12 hits in 5.1 innings pitched. Britton's record now stands at 6-9, as the Orioles are 43-65.
Kansas City has picked up 10 wins in their last 15 outings, playing their best stretch since opening the season 10-4.
A full boxscore can be viewed here. Friday the Royals welcome Detroit to town to take on the division leading Tigers for a three game series. Felipe Paulino will take the mound in the series opener.