Orioles Sweep Royals
The Baltimore Orioles swept the Kansas City Royals earning their first four game winning streak of the season much to the delight for most of the 31,355 fans at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The Birds won the first game of the series 5-3 and the middle game 6-1.
The final game before the All-Star break, an 8-2 romp, had an unexpected hero in outfielder Leody Taveras.
His second inning homerun gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead.
He added an RBI single in the sixth inning when Baltimore broke the game open.
His single gave the Birds a 3-2 lead as they scored five runs in the inning.
Pinch hitter Jeremiah Jackson hit a double scoring Tyler O’Neill.
A balk brought in Taveras and a Gunnar Henderson infield single brought in Jackson.
First baseman Pete Alonso singled allowing Henderson to score. He leads the team with 21 homeruns and 66 RBI.
The inning ended with Baltimore ahead 7-2 as the crowd roared with delight every time a Bird crossed the plate.
Catcher Samuel Basallo added a 404 feet homer to center giving the good guys an 8-2 lead at the end of the seventh inning.
Meanwhile starter Shane Baz struck out nine allowed eight hits and two runs in 4.2 innings of work.
He threw 104 pitches, 70 for strikes.
Five Oriole relievers shutout the Royals to complete the victory and sweep.
The first game was tied at 3-3 in the eighth inning, an became untied when Basallo hit a 373 feet two-run homer to right field giving his team the victory.
Starter Brandon Young allowed eight hits struck out five and surrendered three runs in seven innings of work. Andrew Kittredge earned his third save of the season.
The middle game had some excitement as starter Kyle Bradish had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning.
He ended up giving up two hits and one run striking out five in 6.2 innings of work picking up his sixth win of the season.
The Orioles clobbered four homeruns to support the great Bradish pitching effort.
Baltimore ended the first half of the season with a record of (46-51) and will need a few more four game winning streaks to make the playoffs.
