KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Eric Hosmer rolled a grounder toward first base in the third inning with the score tied, and Lorenzo Cain put on the brakes — a heads-up play that may have won the Royals the game.

Cain hesitated just long enough between first and second base that Baltimore was unable to turn a double play. He later scored on a single by Mike Moustakas, and the Royals went on to a 3-2 victory Tuesday night that pushed their winning streak to four games.

“Just kind of hesitated and didn’t let him tag me,” Cain said. “It ended up being the winning run, so I guess it was a good one to have.”

Kendrys Morales hit a solo homer and Hosmer also drove in a run for the Royals, who improved to 44-20 at home this season, including 12-2 in their current stretch.

Danny Duffy (7-6) dodged trouble for most of 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks. The left-hander struck out five in a start that began in crisp efficiency and ended with the Orioles threatening to pull ahead in the sixth inning.

Luke Hochevar calmed things down with an inning of relief, though. Kelvin Herrera had no trouble with the rest of the seventh and eighth, and Wade Davis pitched a perfect ninth in place of closer Greg Holland to earn his 12th save.

“They did an awesome job,” Royals manager Ned Yost said of his bullpen. “It’s what they do.”

Miguel Gonzalez (9-10) allowed all three runs on six hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings, the latest in a string of lousy starts for Baltimore. Gonzalez is 0-4 in his last six tries.

Leadoff hitter Manny Machado went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, his last ending the game.

The Orioles (62-63) have lost a season-high six straight, falling below .500 for the first time since they were 48-49 on July 26. The calamitous slump has also damaged their playoff hopes — they began the night 2 1/2 games back of Texas for the final AL wild-card spot.

“Always takes a little bit of everything,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “Everybody wants to throw one big circle around one thing. It’s a lot of things. A lot of things. And you can’t (borrow) from Peter to pay Paul in this game. You’ve got to do it all.”

The Royals never trailed after Morales sent a 3-2 pitch into the fountains in right field in the second inning. Hosmer added an RBI groundout in the third, and Moustakas delivered yet another two-out single by the league’s best-hitting team in such situations to score another run.

The Orioles got two runs back in the fourth when Matt Wieters drew a two-out walk and Steve Pearce, Jonathan Schoop and Caleb Joseph strung together a trio of singles. But Duffy managed to get recently called up Paul Janish to ground out to end the threat.

Duffy was in trouble again in the sixth, but Hochevar got Joseph to fly out to deep right field to leave runners on second and third and preserve the 3-2 lead.

It was up to one of the best bullpens in the majors to take care of the rest.

“We’ve just got to figure out a way to score more runs,” Showalter said. “That’s one of the reasons why they’re sitting where they are, is they don’t give up many. They’re taking people out of the rotation that would be in a lot of people’s, so it kind of gives you an idea one of the reasons why they’re good.”

EVEN NED

Yost managed his 900th game with the Royals. He is now 450-450. “I guess it’s cool,” he said, pointing out that at one point he was 53 games under .500. “The last two years we’ve won a bunch of baseball games with a really good group of guys.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Orioles: C Steve Clevenger went on the three-day paternity list to attend the birth of his daughter. Peyton Lee was born Tuesday afternoon.

Royals: Yost said there is still no timetable for OF Alex Gordon to return from his rehab stint at Triple-A Omaha. Gordon had been out with a groin injury.

UP NEXT

Orioles: LHP Wei-Yin Chen tries to keep his unbeaten streak intact Wednesday night. He is 3-0 with three no-decisions since July 21.

Royals: RHP Johnny Cueto makes his sixth start since being traded to Kansas City. He is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA since leaving the Reds.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Omar Infante led a seven-run charge in the sixth inning to support a strong start by Kris Medlen, helping the Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-3 on Monday night.

Despite working on a pitch count, Medlen (2-0) lasted six innings in his first start since Sept. 27, 2013, with Atlanta. The right-hander allowed five hits — one of them a two-run homer by Adam Jones in the first inning — while striking out six without a walk.

Medlen, who returned last month after his second Tommy John surgery, made seven appearances out of the Kansas City bullpen before replacing Jeremy Guthrie in the starting rotation.

Infante followed a tying, two-run homer by Mike Moustakas in the sixth with a two-run triple, then scampered home when the throw to third base skittered away. Lorenzo Cain drove in two more later in the inning, spoiling what had been a promising start by Ubaldo Jimenez.

Jimenez (9-8) allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The loss was the fifth straight for Baltimore and sixth in seven games. It carried a little added sting in that it was the first meeting between the teams since the Royals swept the Orioles in the AL Championship Series on their surprising run to the World Series.

The two-run homer by Jones and a run-scoring double by Steve Clevenger in the fourth inning got the Orioles off to a good start, and Jimenez was cruising through five. The only run he had allowed was on an RBI groundout by Eric Hosmer in the third inning.

Things finally unraveled for Jimenez in the sixth.

Hosmer doubled with one out and Moustakas sent a pitch soaring into the right-field stands to knot the game 3-all. Salvador Perez singled, Alex Rios hit a double and Infante sent a triple into the gap in left-center, sliding into third base ahead of the throw. When it skipped away to the third-base dugout, Infante clambered to his feet and chugged on home.

Alcides Escobar and Ben Zobrist followed with hits before Cain’s two-run double made it a seven-run inning, matching a season best for the Royals.

Medlen’s night was done by that point. He threw 69 pitches, one fewer than manager Ned Yost had said was his limit. Bullpen buddies Franklin Morales and Luke Hochevar did the reset.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Orioles: SS J.J. Hardy (groin) went on the DL and INF-OF Steve Pearce (left oblique) was reinstated. … RHP Mike Wright (calf) will start for Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday.

Royals: First base coach Rusty Kuntz was back at work after missing 13 days with a sinus infection and stomach virus. Kuntz said he lost more than 10 pounds during the illness.

UP NEXT

Orioles: RHP Miguel Gonzalez tries to bounce back from an awful start against Minnesota in which he allowed seven runs in five innings of a 15-2 rout.

Royals: LHP Danny Duffy has dominated the Orioles in three career outings, going 1-1 with a 1.46 ERA. Last May, he retired the first 20 batters he faced.

— Associated Press —

BOSTON (AP) — Mike Moustakas kept fouling off good pitches. He finally saw one he could handle and didn’t miss it.

Moustakas’ two-run double capped a wild four-run ninth inning that carried the AL Central-leading Kansas City Royals to an 8-6 comeback victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

The Royals had two runners cut down at the plate in the ninth, one trying for an inside-the-park homer, and collected six hits against Boston closer Junichi Tazawa (2-6).

Moustakas capped off a 10-pitch at-bat with his go-ahead hit into the right-center field gap.

“A lot of great at-bats that inning,” Moustakas said. “It ended up coming around to me and I was able to get the job done.”

Moustakas also had a solo homer and RBI double for Kansas City, which salvaged a split of the four-game series.

Boston led 6-4 going into the ninth. After left fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. threw out Omar Infante trying for the homer for the first out, Kansas City rallied with four hits, tying it on Eric Hosmer’s two-run single.

“There were some great at-bats,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “It was an awesome ninth inning for us. Just a succession of great at-bat after great at-bat.”

Batting eighth in the final inning, Moustakas knew if he came up, the Royals were likely doing something special.

“I was hoping it would get to me,” he said. “If it gets to me, we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

Tazawa gave him everything he had.

“He was getting to all the pitches that were borderline,” he said through a translator. “Fouling off a lot of pitches and I was dealing with a slippery ball. Obviously I was trying to get through, but he got the best of me.”

Chris Young (9-6) retired one batter and Wade Davis got the final three outs for his 11th save.

Bradley Jr. had two RBI doubles and a single for the Red Sox, who went 6-4 on a 10-game homestand — all under interim manager Torey Lovullo, who took over for John Farrell on Aug. 14. Farrell took a medical leave for the rest of the season to deal with Stage 1 Lymphoma.

“They hit some good pitches and it was not a typical Taz day,” Lovullo said.

Boston trailed 4-2, but scored twice in both the sixth and seventh.

Royals starter Edinson Volquez gave up six runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Trailing 2-1 in the fourth, the Royals scored twice, taking advantage of two errors on one play. Second baseman Josh Rutledge booted a grounder and center fielder Mookie Betts’ throw bounced into the Royals’ dugout for the first run. Moustakas followed with his RBI double. He homered into the Green Monster seats.

Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez allowed four runs — two earned — in six innings.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: C Salvador Perez had the day off. He took a hard foul tip off the mask and one off the right leg Saturday night, but was feeling fine.

Red Sox: Utility infielder Brock Holt was out of the lineup again Sunday. He was set to play Saturday, but was taken out of lineup after batting practice with a strained left oblique. … OF Hanley Ramirez had the day off.

WHAT A THROW

Yost was still praising Bradley’s peg from left-center in the ninth, even saying he wanted third-base coach Mike Jirschele to send Infante.

“I was screaming, ‘Send him,'” he said. “I said, ‘It’s not on you.’ It was just a great throw. He’s got a tremendous arm.”

NAILED AT HOME

Besides Infante, Kendrys Morales was cut down at home 8-4-2 for the final out of the ninth.

RAINY DAY

A light mist started falling early and remained for most of the game.

UP NEXT

Royals: RHP Kris Medlen (1-0) makes his first start since returning from Tommy John surgery Monday when the Royals host the Baltimore Orioles. RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (9-7) is set to start for the Orioles in the first meeting since the Royals swept the ALCS.

Red Sox: Joe Kelly (6-6) looks to win his fifth straight start as Boston faces RHP Jeff Samardzija (8-9) on Monday in the opener of a three-game series at the Chicago White Sox.

— Associated Press —