Orioles Win 4-0, Sweep Kansas City Royals
Baltimore (WJZ) -- Chris Tillman matches a career-high with nine strikeouts as the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Kansas City Royals 4-0 on Wednesday night to give them the series sweep.
The Orioles have been lighting up the scoreboard with big time homeruns to create insurmountable leads for the opposing team. But it was superb pitching and timely hitting that ruled the day on Wednesday night against Kansas City.
Chris Tillman (8-1) has played like the Ace Baltimore has sorely needed for most of the season. It was more of the same in this game as he threw 110 pitches for 7 and 1/3 innings with 9 strikeouts and no walks. In fact, 81 of Tillman's 110 pitches were thrown for strikes. That's an impressive outing for someone who is slowly creeping into the AL Cy Young conversation.
Royals SP Edinson Volquez looked like he was going to have similar success until the fifth inning. Ryan Flaherty started things off with a double to deep right to score two runs. Adam Jones hit a sacrifice fly to left that drove in another run. Hyun Soo Kim finsihed things off with an RBI single to bring Flaherty home and take the 4-0 lead. Baltimore wouldn't score again for the rest of the game, and thanks to their pitching and defense, they wouldn't have to.
The Baltimore Orioles will begin a 4-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night when Tyler Wilson (2-6 4.39 ERA) goes up against Marcus Stroman (5-2 4.82 ERA).