Henderson homers as Orioles full sweep of Royals

BALTIMORE — Gunnar Henderson homered for the second consecutive day, and the Baltimore Orioles defeated Kansas City 11-3 on Sunday to finish a three-game sweep and lengthen the Royals’ dropping streak to 6.

Starter Kyle Gibson earned his fourth consecutive victory for Baltimore, whereas Ramón Urías had 4 hits and Ryan O’Hearn homered as a part of a three-hit day that additionally included two walks and 4 runs scored. The Orioles (41-24) have received 4 in a row for the primary time since May 9-13 and are 17 video games over .500 for the primary time since July 26, 2016.

It was Baltimore’s fourth collection sweep of the season and first since May 19-21 at Toronto.

Baltimore supervisor Brandon Hyde moved Henderson into the leadoff spot Saturday for the primary time this 12 months, and the infielder responded with a second-inning dwelling run as a part of a two-hit day.

Henderson already had two hits and a run Sunday when he smashed reliever Jackson Kowar’s slider 462 toes to proper for a three-run blast onto Eutaw Street within the seventh inning.

“That was loud coming off the bat,” Hyde mentioned.

In 9 video games since May 30, Henderson is hitting .406 (13 for 32) and has raised his batting common from .199 to .236.

“It just goes to show me that no matter what you’re going through, you’re going to get through it,” Henderson mentioned. “Just keep swinging and just keep trusting the process. It’s hard to do. I’ll be the first one to tell you it’s really hard to do in the moment.”

Salvador Perez homered for Kansas City, which has dropped 9 of 10. The Royals (18-47) have the second-worst document within the majors, forward of solely Oakland, and have scored eight runs of their final 5 video games.

Kansas City was 2 for 17 with runners in scoring place through the collection. The Royals had been swept for the seventh time this season, matching their 2022 complete.

“I don’t think there’s one magic button you push to all of the sudden spark a lineup or anything,” Kansas City supervisor Matt Quatraro mentioned. “I think it’s consistency of the work and preparation, the quality of the at-bats and hope that we start to string some of them together.”

The Orioles took the lead for good within the third towards Mike Mayers (1-2), who loaded the bases earlier than recording the inning’s first out. Josh Lester then singled up the center to attain two runs, and James McCann adopted with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3.

Aaron Hicks added an RBI double within the fourth towards Mayers, who yielded 4 runs in 5 innings of aid for the Royals.

Gibson (8-3) allowed three runs and 7 hits in 6 1/3 innings. The 35-year-old right-hander is 4-0 with a 2.61 ERA over his final 5 begins.

The Orioles took a 3-1 lead towards opener Carlos Hernández because of Austin Hays’ sacrifice fly and Urías’ two-run double. Kansas City tied it within the third on Perez’s two-run homer to left-center off Gibson.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Orioles: 1B Ryan Mountcastle (sickness) remained out of the lineup. Mountcastle has missed 4 of the final 5 video games after showing in all however one in every of Baltimore’s first 60 video games. … C Adley Rutschman had a routine time without work.

UP NEXT

Royals: RHP Zack Greinke (1-6, 4.59 ERA) begins Monday as Kansas City returns dwelling to start a collection with Cincinnati. Greinke is 8-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 14 profession begins towards the Reds.