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Cabrera ends skid as Orioles down Royals

Jul 3, 2008 - 4:17 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Daniel Cabrera must love pitching against the Kansas City Royals.

Cabrera tossed his second complete game of the season en route to his first win in over five weeks as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Royals, 5-2, on Wednesday.

Aubrey Huff hit a two-run home run and Ramon Hernandez collected three hits for the Orioles, who have posted back-to-back wins after losing the series opener. They will finish the four-game set Thursday.

Cabrera (6-4), who had not won since May 20, yielded two runs and seven hits with no walks and two strikeouts in the fifth complete game of his career.

"It's good that the month (of June) is over already," Cabrera said. "It's a new month, and I'll just keep working and trying to keep doing what I do."

"You're probably not going to see Cabrera pitch any better than he did tonight," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said. "His poise was outstanding. I thought really a small thing in the game that was probably a key element was when he balked, and I sent (pitching coach Rick) Kranitz out to the mound to talk to him because I could see the smoke coming out of his ears."

The 27-year-old Cabrera also pitched a complete game against the Royals on May 8. Baltimore is now 8-0 against Kansas City when the Dominican righthander gets the start.

Cabrera, who improved to 5-0 lifetime with a 2.21 ERA against the Royals, struggled early on but settled down in the fourth after the Orioles grabbed a 3-2 edge on Luke Scott's RBI single the previous inning. After Jose Guillen led off the fourth with a single, Cabrera retired the next 14 batters he faced.

"When I met him on the top of the stairs last night, I said, 'Hey, you know, our bullpen's pretty beat up. You've got to go deep into the game tomorrow night.' And he told me he would," Trembley said. "I thought late in the game, the momentum played right into his hands. He was throwing first-pitch strikes and he got some 1-2-3 innings with less than 10 pitches in back-to-back innings. That probably really helped him a lot."

Huff erased an early 1-0 deficit, blasting a two-run shot off Royals starter Gil Meche (6-9) in the first inning.

Nick Markakis delivered an RBI triple in the fifth and scored on Hernandez's base hit to give Baltimore a 5-2 advantage. Markakis would have had a home run, but Kansas City center fielder Joey Gathright made a leaping play at the wall to keep the ball in the ballpark.

"I had it," Gathright said. "But as soon as I went up, this shoulder of mine kind of went out of place when I hit the wall. And as soon as I hit the wall, I lost all feeling in my hand, so I couldn't squeeze the ball any more and it just came out."

"It was pretty unbelievable," said Royals right fielder Mark Teahen, who had the best view of the play. "I wish he had some pine tar or something in his glove so it would have stuck. But not too many guys in the league could have brought a ball back like that."

David DeJesus had three hits - including a solo homer in the first - for Kansas City, which has lost four of its last five after winning six straight games and 11 of its previous 12.

"That was one of my shortest swings," DeJesus said of his blast. "I felt like I didn't try to do too much and it just went out."