KANSAS CITY – Corbin Burnes tried to turn away from a hard one-hopper, felt the ball slam off his right hip, scrambled to retrieve it, failed on his first attempt and threw out the runner by a hair.

This was one batter into his start.

Burnes waved off manager Brandon Hyde and head athletic trainer Brian Ebel as they began walking to the mound. Like he knew that he wouldn’t be the starter knocked out early.

The Orioles sent 12 batters to the plate in the second inning and scored seven runs against Royals left-hander Cole Ragans, the same pitcher who blanked them on one hit in 6 1/3 in Baltimore. The same pitcher with the 1.93 ERA.

A relaxed-turned-tense 9-7 win at Kauffman Stadium improved the Orioles to 13-7 and ran their sweepless streak in the regular season to 98 series. The offense was stagnant last night until Adley Rutschman’s grand slam in the seventh, but it took good care of Burnes.

After a rough Friday for O’s pitching – especially the bullpen – the Orioles send ace right-hander Corbin Burnes (2-0, 2.28 ERA) to the mound tonight to try and restore order and even the series in Kansas City.

When right-hander Dean Kremer walked back-to-back batters in the last of the sixth with one out, he was allowed to get one more out and then pulled for lefty Keegan Akin with the O’s down 1-0 in the series opener.

A couple of groundballs found holes to plate three more runs and Kansas City was on its way to a five-run sixth and three-run seventh to post a 9-4 win over the Orioles.

The Royals (13-7) lost their first two home games of this season and have now won nine in a row at Kauffman Stadium. They have outscored their opponents 70-26 on the year at home and by 68-17 during the nine straight home wins.

Kansas City and Cleveland are tied for the MLB lead on the season with a plus-45 run differential.