Santander, Mountcastle, Odor homer as O’s beat Royals 10-7
Baltimore Orioles' Richie Martin, left, is safe with a triple as Kansas City Royals third baseman Emmanuel Rivera, right, is late with a tag during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, June 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Rougned Odor hit solo home runs, leading the Baltimore Orioles over the Kansas City Royals 10-7 on Sunday.
Hunter Dozier, Michael A. Taylor and Bobby Witt Jr. homered for the Royals.
Baltimore jumped on Brad Keller (1-8) with three homers in the first two innings.
Santander hit a 455-foot drive into the right-field fountains in the first.
Mountcastle and Odor hit back-to-back home runs to start a four-run second inning. It was the fifth time this season and the third in June that the Orioles hit back-to-back homers.
“We swung the bat well all day,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “We had really good at-bats and it started early, which is great to see, we haven’t done that a ton. Putting five runs up in the first couple of innings and hitting a few homers, that was nice.”
Cedric Mullins had four hits and drove in two runs for Baltimore. Richie Martin and Austin Hays each had three hits and two RBIs.
Dean Kremer (1-1) tossed five innings and allowed one earned run and four hits. He won his first game since his major league debut in September 2020, snapping an 0-9 stretch in 17 starts and claiming his first career win on the road.
“You can’t complain about getting some early run support,” Kremer said. “It is a lot more relaxing pitching with a good lead.”
Cionel Pérez notched his first career save with a scoreless ninth.
Keller gave up five runs on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings. The three home runs he allowed tied a career-high set in 2019 and it was his shortest outing of the season.
“I just felt like I didn’t have much command of anything out there,” Keller said. “It was tough and I felt like they all kept flying out of my hand and not going anywhere I wanted it to go. We had a good gameplan going in but didn’t execute the pitches.”
Royals manager Mike Matheny agreed.
“Brad just didn’t have a feel for anything,” Matheny said. “When you can’t control the fastball it’s going to be a long one. He never got in a groove.”
Taylor and Witt hit solo home runs in the eighth inning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Royals: LHP Jake Brentz (left flexor strain) was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Brentz was initially placed on the 10-day IL on April 30.
ROSTER MOVES
Royals: LHP Amir Garrett was reinstated from the injured list. LHP Angel Zerpa was optioned to Double-A Northwest Arkansas in a corresponding move.
Orioles: Baltimore released INF Chris Owings.
UP NEXT
Orioles: RHP Kyle Bradish (1-3, 6.45 ERA) starts on the road against Toronto.
Royals: Begin a nine-game West Coast swing against San Francisco with RHP Brady Singer (3-1, 4.33 ERA) set to start.
