Kansas City Royals vs Baltimore Orioles Match Player Stats On Jun 09, 2023

Austin Hays homered and doubled and starting pitcher Tyler Wells worked into the seventh inning as the Baltimore Orioles edged the visiting Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series.

Gunnar Henderson rapped three singles and scored a run for the Orioles, who have won back-to-back games for the first time since May 24-25.

Wells (5-2) mostly cruised until retiring the first two batters in the seventh and later leaving with the bases loaded. Felix Bautista, who was Baltimore's third reliever used, pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his 17th save.

The Royals have lost four games in a row and seven of their last eight.

Hays hit the first pitch from Royals starter Daniel Lynch for his seventh homer of the season.

Lynch (0-2) took the loss, giving up three runs on eight hits and a walk in six innings. He struck out four.

The Orioles made it 2-0 in the second. Henderson, who was the hero with a go-ahead home run in Thursday's comeback win at Milwaukee, singled and stole second before scoring on Jorge Mateo's single.

Kansas City responded in the third with Nicky Lopez smacking a one-out triple and coming home on Nick Pratto's sacrifice fly.

Hays and Anthony Santander doubled in the fifth to produce the third Baltimore run.

Kansas City began a seventh-inning rally with two-out singles by Maikel Garcia and Michael Massey. Then Wells issued his lone walk to Drew Waters and was pulled.

The Royals got a run on reliever Mike Baumann's wild pitch before he struck out Lopez to halt the threat.

Wells finished with four strikeouts, giving up two runs and five hits in his 6 2/3 innings.

Kansas City finished with seven hits, but no Royal had more than one.

--Field Level Media