Cole Irvin pitches Orioles past Royals

Cole Irvin took a shutout into the seventh inning as the Baltimore Orioles beat the host Kansas City Royals, 5-0, Sunday afternoon to win the season series.

Irvin (1-1) escaped first-inning trouble, then limited Kansas City to just three singles and a walk over the next six innings.

In his longest outing since September 17, 2022, Irvin pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and two walks, striking out two.

Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg opened the second inning with back-to-back homers, each connecting for their fifth of the year to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead.

Two batters later, Gunner Henderson nearly added a third home run in the frame with a ringing double off the top of the right-field wall which was reviewed by umpires to determine if it might have cleared the railing. Henderson's liner was measured at 109.1 miles-per-hour exit velocity.

Baltimore expanded its lead in the sixth as Ryan Mountcastle followed Anthony Santander's one-out triple with a first-pitch double to left. Seth Lugo (3-1) exited after walking Cowser to load the bases and reliever Ángel Zerpa walked Westburg for a 4-0 Orioles' advantage.

Westburg, Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins each collected two of Baltimore's 11 hits.

Lugo threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and a walk. It was his shortest outing of the year and snapped a string of seven consecutive quality starts dating to Sept. 9 last year. He struck out one -- his fewest as a starter since Sept. 27, 2020.

Three relievers allowed one hit over the final 2 2/3 innings, finishing the Orioles' first shutout of the season as Baltimore concluded their season series with Kansas City, winning four of six games.

The Royals were shut out for the first time this year and have not won a series from the Orioles since Aug. 30-Sept. 1, 2019, having lost six and split two series.