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Orioles continue road trip against Royals

Aug 2, 2011 - 2:51 PM (Sports Network) - The Baltimore Orioles finish up their last leg of a 10-game road trip tonight with the first of three straight games against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

The Orioles are 2-5 so far on the trek and lost three of four meetings at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. After winning the series opener, they dropped the last three portions of the set, including Sunday's 4-2 loss. Jake Arrieta failed in his bid for an 11th win of the season by allowing four runs -- two earned -- and five hits in five innings of work.

"[We] walk out of here, getting one of the four games, doesn't feel very good," said Arrieta. "When you give those guys a lead, they make you pay for it. And it's tough. It's tough to get back in the ballgame. Especially here in Yankee Stadium."

Adam Jones and Vladimir Guerrero each had an RBI, while Chris Davis went 0- for-4 in his Baltimore debut. Davis was acquired Saturday night along with right-hander Tommy Hunter from Texas in a deal for reliever Koji Uehara. Nick Markakis and J.J. Hardy are still one homer shy of 100 in their careers.

Baltimore has lost eight of 11 games and will send Alfredo Simon to the mound Tuesday hoping he can find some success. Simon has lost two straight and three of four trips to the hill, and last toed the rubber in a 3-0 setback at Toronto last Wednesday. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.

Simon, a right-hander, is 2-4 with a 4.23 earned run average in 11 games (4 starts) this season and will make his first career start against the Royals. In four relief meetings with them, Simon is 2-1 with a lofty 6.23 ERA.

Kansas City took two of three matchups from Cleveland over the weekend and won for the eighth time in 12 tries with Sunday's 5-3 victory over the Indians. Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur both homered for the Royals, who went 4-3 on a seven-game trek through Boston and Cleveland.

"We hit some homers this trip and that's good," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "(Gordon's) today was a nice homer and (Francoeur) started it off with a homer, so two more homers today it was big in the scoring."

Danny Duffy was one of five pitchers to see action for KC and earned the win by holding the Tribe to a pair of runs and eight hits in five innings. Joakim Soria later took the hill in the ninth for his 20th save. Soria had his streak of 12 consecutive converted saves come to an end Saturday night.

The Royals are slated to host Detroit for three games on this residency and send Bruce Chen to the mound Tuesday. Chen is 5-4 with a 4.29 ERA in 13 starts this season, but is 0-2 in his last three outings. He was hammered for 10 runs and 10 hits in four innings of a 12-5 loss at Boston on Wednesday.

Chen, a left-hander, defeated Baltimore on May 5 with seven innings of one-run ball and is 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA in three career meetings with the Orioles. He is also 3-0 in seven starts at Kauffman Stadium in 2011.

Baltimore has won four of six contests against Kansas City this season. KC took two of three games as the host from May 3-5.