BALTIMORE — Leody Taveras homered and later drove in the tiebreaking run Sunday afternoon as the Baltimore Orioles completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals, heading into the All-Star break on a season-best four-game winning streak thanks to an 8-2 victory.
Samuel Basallo also homered, Gunnar Henderson posted three hits and Blaze Alexander had two hits and scored two runs. Taveras finished with three RBI.
Grant Wolfram (2-2), who worked two-thirds of an inning, was the winning pitcher. He was the second of Baltimore’s five relievers.
Lane Thomas notched three hits and Bobby Witt Jr. had two hits for the Royals, who have lost five games in a row. They racked up nine hits but left nine runners on base.
With the All-Star break coming following the game, the teams were eager to use their bullpens.
Orioles starter Shane Baz struck out nine batters, but he threw 104 pitches in 4⅔ innings. He allowed two runs (one earned) and seven hits without issuing a walk.
Starter Seth Lugo worked four innings for the Royals, surrendering two runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Kansas City reliever Matt Strahm (3-3) suffered the loss for the second time in three days, giving up five runs on four hits in one-third of an inning in the sixth.
Taveras broke a tie at 2 with a sixth-inning single. Jeremiah Jackson tacked on a run-scoring double before Taveras scored on Strahm’s balk. Henderson’s infield single made it 6-2, and three batters later, Pete Alonso provided a two-out RBI single.
Basallo led off the seventh inning with his second homer of the series and 16th of the season.
The Royals opened the scoring on Isaac Collins’ two-out, second-inning triple.
The Orioles went ahead in the bottom half of the inning on Taveras’ two-run home run. Two of his four homers this year have come against the Royals.
Kansas City pulled even in the third on Thomas’ run-scoring single.
Baltimore won five of its six meetings against the Royals this year.
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