• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Orioles hope to rebound against Royals

Aug 10, 2012 - 2:52 PM (Sports Network) - Manny Machado's major league debut wasn't a successful one, but the Baltimore Orioles saw enough from the young star to consider his early promotion a wise decision.

The Orioles are gearing up for the stretch run and look to get back to their winning ways when they resume a four-game series versus the Kansas City Royals tonight from Camden Yards. Machado made his debut at third base and batted ninth, going 2-for-4 with a triple and a run scored in an 8-2 loss.

"It would've been way better if we would have come out with the win," Machado said of his debut.

Machado, the third overall pick in the 2010 draft, was called up from Double-A Bowie and batted .266 with 11 homers and 59 RBI in 109 games with the Baysox this season. He was littered with chants of "Manny" and even received a standing ovation for his first at-bat in the second inning.

Unfortunately, rookie starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen couldn't get the job done and was dealt the loss for permitting seven runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings. Matt Wieters was the only other Oriole with multiple hits and belted his 16th home run of the season.

Baltimore was aiming for a season-high sixth straight win and fell to 3-1 on a 10-game, 11-day homestand. It dropped to 5 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees for the lead in the American League East standings, and had won four in a row as the host. The O's also are tied for one of the remaining Wild Card spots in the AL.

The Orioles will send another young hurler to the mound Friday in Miguel Gonzalez, who is 3-2 in nine games, six of which have been starts, with a 3.80 earned run average. The first-year right-hander had his best outing of the season in a 1-0 win at Tampa Bay on Sunday and did not figure into the decision with four strikeouts and four walks over seven scoreless innings.

Gonzalez is 0-2 in three games (2 starts) with a 7.82 ERA at home, and will face the Royals for the first time.

Kansas City has won three in a row and seven of its last 10 games, and jumped out to a 7-0 lead thanks to a four-run first inning last night. Alex Gordon started the game with a home run and Billy Butler later followed with a three- run blast. Butler and Gordon both had three hits, while the former scored a trio of runs for the Royals, who are 3-1 on a seven-game road trip.

"There had been some games here recently where we had gotten some runners on in the first inning and hadn't really capitalized on it and we did today," said Butler, who was a single shy of the cycle.

Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas had two hits and an RBI apiece. Kansas City starter Will Smith held the early lead and limited Baltimore to two runs on six hits in seven innings for the win.

Luke Hochevar draws the start for the Royals tonight and hopes to move closer to the .500 mark with a win. He is 7-9 in 22 starts with an ERA of 5.04, and did not record a decision in Sunday's 7-6 win over Texas, as he was reached for five runs -- one earned -- and four hits in six innings.

Hochevar, who has won four of his last six decisions, is 0-1 with a 4.22 ERA in two starts against Baltimore this season and 1-5 with a 6.08 ERA through eight career starts in this series. The right-hander owns an 0-3 mark to go along with a 7.99 ERA in four career outings at Camden Yards.

The season series between Baltimore and Kansas City is even at 3-3.