BALTIMORE (Interstat) — Leody Taveras homered and drove in three runs, Shane Baz struck out nine over 4⅔ innings, and the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Kansas City Royals 8-2 Sunday afternoon at Oriole Park at Camden Yards before 31,355.

Baltimore scored twice in the second inning on Taveras’ fourth homer of the season, then broke the game open with a five-run sixth. Taveras singled in a run, Jeremiah Jackson added a ground-rule double and Gunnar Henderson singled in another run before a Pete Alonso single capped the outburst. The Orioles added a run in the seventh.

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the second on Isaac Collins’ triple and tied it 2-2 in the third on Lane Thomas’ RBI single. Thomas finished 3 for 4 with an RBI. Matt Strahm (3-3) took the loss.

Baz allowed one earned run on seven hits with nine strikeouts. Grant Wolfram (2-2) recorded the final two outs in the seventh for the win. Samuel Basallo homered for Baltimore.

The Orioles improved to 46-51, while the Royals fell to 38-59. The game lasted 2 hours, 59 minutes.