By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals managed just four hits and saw their winning streak end at three games, falling to the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 on Friday night. Bobby Witt Jr was 0-4, losing his career best 22 game hitting streak in the loss.
It was a classic pitchers duel between Royals starter Michael Wacha and Orioles starter Dean Kremer, as both teams were scoreless through the first six innings, a combined six hits between both teams, but in the seventh Baltimore broke through putting up all three runs.
Adley Rutschman doubled to lead off the inning and former Royal Ryan O’ Hearn followed that with a two run home run to center field off Wacha. Wacha surrendered a third straight hit, a double to Ryan Mountcastle and walked Ramon Laureano before manager Matt Quatraro pulled him in favor of the bullpen, bringing on reliever Steven Cruz. Cruz immediatly gave up a single to Heston Kjerstad, loading the bases, before another former Royal Emmanuel Rivera singled to drive in Mountcastle for the final run of the inning.
Giving up all three runs, Wacha took the loss, falling to 1-4, pitching 6.1 innings and striking out three, walking one and giving up seven hits. Michael Massey (2-4) and Freddy Fermin (2-3) accounted for all four of the Royals hits.
Kansas City will look to turn around their luck continuing their series against Baltimore tomorrow. Kris Bubic starts for the Royals against Tomoyuki Sugano for the Orioles. First pitch is at 6:15pm, pregame coverage begins at 5:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
