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Orioles-Royals Preview

May 16, 2009 - 7:03 AM By DAN PIERINGER STATS Writer

Baltimore (15-21) at Kansas City (19-17), 7:10 p.m. EDT

The Kansas City Royals snapped their longest losing streak of the season behind another dominant outing from their ace and a big night at the plate.

Without Zack Greinke on the mound, the pressure now will be more squarely on the offense.

The Royals look to build on their first win in eight days as they continue a four-game series against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night.

Greinke was excellent again in an 8-1 victory Friday, holding Baltimore to one run and six hits in seven innings and improving to 7-1 with a major league-best 0.60 ERA. This time, though, the right-hander got plenty of help from his offense, which delivered 13 hits after recording five in Greinke's last start - a 1-0 road loss to the Los Angeles Angels last Saturday.

The Royals (19-17) got home runs from Mike Jacobs and Miguel Olivo and went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position to snap a six-game losing streak. They averaged 2.3 runs and batted .221 overall - and .200 with runners in scoring position - during the skid.

"It was good to see us put up hits and put up runs with it," manager Trey Hillman said.

The Orioles (15-21) had recorded at least 10 hits in five straight games before getting held to seven Friday. Right fielder Nick Markakis, who came into the game batting .346, went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and Baltimore fell to 5-18 when he doesn't finish with at least two hits.

A career .303 hitter, Markakis is 10 for 43 (.233) with nine strikeouts lifetime at Kauffman Stadium. Despite his struggles there, Baltimore has won 24 of 32 in Kansas City since the start of the 2001 season. The Orioles haven't dropped consecutive road games against the Royals in a single season since May 10-11, 2003.

Baltimore hopes that remains the case as they hand the ball Rich Hill for his first start since he was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in February.

The left-hander showed promise in 2007, going 11-8 with a 3.92 ERA and 183 strikeouts over 195 innings at the back of Chicago's rotation. However, he fell out of favor last year, getting sent to the minors after opening 1-0 with a 4.12 ERA through his first five starts.

He walked 18 in 19 2-3 innings before being demoted

Hill, who's never faced Kansas City, opened this season on the disabled list with a left elbow strain. He was 1-2 with a 1.65 ERA in four rehab starts.

The Royals' Kyle Davies (2-1, 5.22 ERA) delivered one of his best starts of the year his last time out. The right-hander held the Angels to one run and three hits in six innings of a 4-3 defeat Sunday.

Davies has a 10.80 ERA in two starts against Baltimore. His team won both games.

Orioles first baseman Aubrey Huff has delivered an extra-base hit in all three of his at-bats against Davies - two home runs and a double.