Royals Can’t Hang With Orioles; Lose 8-2

Cueto starts. Cueto struggles. At least that’s what it seems I’ve had to write about in each of my last several recaps.

The Orioles jumped all over Johnny in the bottom of the first inning. Manny Machado walked with one out and Chris Davis singled to put runners at the corners. Adam Jones walked to the plate and absolutely crushed a three-run homer to start the scoring off.

The Royals put together some momentum in the top of the second. Salvador Perez hit a two-out double before Alex Rios showed some signs of life and hit a double to left field. That scored Perez and Alcides Escobar followed up with a single to score Rios and make the score 3-2 in favor of the Orioles.

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That’s where the offense sputtered for the Royals, however, as Baltimore immediately picked up another run in the bottom of the second on a Jonathan Schoop solo home run. Then he hit another solo shot in the bottom of the fourth. Chris Davis added his own solo homer in the bottom of the fifth to make the count 6-2 Orioles.

In the seventh inning, J.J. Hardy led off with a double before Nolan Reimold followed up with a single to put runners at first and third with no outs. Manny Machado then hit a shot to third that was beautifully snagged by Mike Moustakas, but his throw to Ben Zobrist at second was dropped. J.J. Hardy scored and everyone else was safe. Adam Jones came to the plate and hit a double to score Reimold before the Royals were able to get out the inning and the Orioles had a comfortable 8-2 lead.

That was the final score as the Royals lost another. Cueto looked as shaky as ever giving up 7 ER and 11 hits in 6.1 inning pitched and the Blue Jays continue to close in on the Royals for best record in the American League. There’s certainly no need to panic, but these next several weeks are definitely going to be a lot less relaxed than they might have been.