Machado powers O's in rout of Royals
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Manny Machado picked up two hits in his major league debut on Thursday, but the 20-year-old was even more impressive Friday.
Machado crushed his first two major league home runs in the Orioles' 7-1 win over the Kansas City Royals in the second game of a four-game series. Machado became the youngest Oriole to have a multi-homer game.
The young third baseman drove in four runs and is now 4-for-8 in two games for the Orioles, who have won six of their last seven games.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He's going to be a nice, young hitter," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "You can classify those pitches as mistakes, but we made other mistakes today that were popped up or fouled back. He took advantage of them. That's the mark of a nice, young hitter."
Miguel Gonzalez (4-2), coming off seven scoreless innings against Tampa Bay, held the Royals to one run on six hits in eight innings en route to his first career victory at Camden Yards.
"He had a tremendous split," Yost said. "His fastball was very deceiving, sneaky, and he really located it well. He located in, off the plate, and you'd see it, and you'd think you can get to it, but it had a little hump at the end."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The O's pummeled Luke Hochevar (7-10) for seven runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Salvador Perez smacked a homer for the Royals, who saw their three-game win streak come to an end.
Perez put Kansas City ahead with his opposite-field home run over the right- field scoreboard in the second inning.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Baltimore jumped ahead of Kansas City after Wilson Betemit led off the second with a double and Omar Quintanilla laced a 3-1 fastball over the fence in right-center field to give the O's a 2-1 lead.
Machado crushed a 3-2 breaking ball over the left-field fence in the fifth inning for his first career home run, giving Baltimore a three-run lead.
The Orioles added to their lead in the sixth after Hochevar walked Matt Wieters and plunked Betemit with one out. Nate McLouth doubled home Wieters before Machado slammed another two-strike breaking ball into the left-field stands, opening up a 7-1 advantage and leading to the rookie's first career curtain call.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It was great," Machado said. "I've dreamed about that my whole life, about going out there and getting a curtain call. Second game in the big leagues and I get it, I thought it was great."
Pedro Strop struck out two and retired the Royals in order in the ninth to close out the win.
Game Notes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Before the game, the Orioles announced that their game against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, August 30 will begin at 12:35 p.m....Machado is not the youngest Oriole to hit a home run. Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer homered as a 19-year-old in 1965...Gonzalez, a rookie, was 0-2 with a 10.80 earned run average in two home starts before Friday...Hochevar is 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA against Baltimore this season (12 earned runs in 16 innings) and is 0-4 with an 8.69 ERA in his career at Camden Yards (28 earned runs in 29 innings).