Francisco Peña homers twice in Kansas City (O's lose 4-3)

KANSAS CITY - The Orioles are trying to avoid the season's first three-game losing streak and an 0-3 start to this road trip. They are tied 1-1 with Kansas City tonight through three innings.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the last of the second. Making his second start of 2017, Chris Tillman got into and out of trouble and needed 27 pitches to finish that frame. Eric Hosmer led the inning with a double to deep left and he scored on a Salvador Perez groundball single to left for his 21st RBI. But Tillman went on to strand two runners in that inning after allowing his first run of the year.

Meanwhile Royals right-hander Nate Karns got a lot of strikeouts early on. He fanned two in a scoreless top of the first that included a two-out Manny Machado single.

He struck out the side on 14 pitches in the second. He got Mark Trumbo swinging at a knuckle curve, Jonathan Schoop swinging at the same pitch and Trey Mancini looking at a changeup.

In the third, the O's tied it 1-1. But first another strikeout. J.J. Hardy was the sixth to fan among the first eight Orioles batters.

pena-high-five-dugout.jpgCatcher Francisco Peña then homered to left on a 2-2 knuckle curve to get the O's on the board. He hit No. 1 405 feet to left. With that homer, Peña is 3-for-5 since joining the team to replace the injured Welington Castillo.

Through the top of the third, Karns had struck out seven Orioles. He has thrown 53 pitches and 23 were knuckle curves. He got swings and missed on nine of them.

Tillman stranded two more runners in the third, pitching out of two-out trouble. He's at 58 pitches but stranded four runners through the first three frames.

He did it again: While most of the O's have been striking out tonight, Peña is not among them. He blasted his second homer of the night in the fifth for a 2-1 O's lead. This one went 430 feet. Coming into the game, Peña had one career homer in 54 big league plate appearances.

He also called his shot before first pitch. Peña told Orioles public relations director Kristen Hudak he would hit a homer tonight and then look into the MASN camera in the dugout and say, "Hi Mom!" He did and then he did. Did he predict he would hit two?

K.C. gets lead: There was more trouble for Tillman in the fifth as he would knocked from the game as the Royals scored twice to lead 3-2 on sac flies by Lorenzo Cain and Jorge Bonifacio.

Tillman went 4 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits and three runs with two walks and four strikeouts. He threw 105 pitches. Karns was lifted after five innings and 12 strikeouts for right-hander Seth Maness.

Tied again: Chris Davis, the first batter Maness faced, hit a solo homer to left to tie the game at 3-3.

Not anymore, though: Brandon Moss homered for the second night in a row. His solo shot off Alec Asher in the sixth gave Kansas City the 4-3 lead after six innings.

Chris Tillman struggles as Orioles fall 4-3 (quote...
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