KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Rookie Ken Harvey keeps producing in late-inning clutch situations for the Kansas City Royals.
Harvey sparked a four-run seventh with a tiebreaking two-run single to propel the Royals to an 8-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday.
Harvey has eight game-tying or go-ahead hits in his past 18 games, including a two-run homer in the eighth inning Saturday.
"Harvey just keeps doing it," Royals manager Tony Pena said. "If I need a big hit, that's the guy I want at the plate right now. For some reason, he can just the get the hit."
With one out in the seventh and the score tied at 3, Desi Relaford walked against Travis Driskill (0-1) and Carlos Beltran hit a ground-rule double. Driskill intentionally walked left-handed hitting Raul Ibanez to face Harvey.
"You have to take that personally," Harvey said. "I'm a competitor and I want to come through."
The move backfired when Harvey lined a single to left, scoring Relaford and Beltran to make it 5-3.
"That was pick your poison," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "That's a tough call. Either we're going to have the infield in and take our shot or try to get a double play and that's the way we went with it. We didn't make the pitch to get that. The inning just came unraveled."
Brent Mayne and Angel Berroa added RBI singles in the inning.
"I hadn't seen or heard of him (Harvey) until I got here," Driskill said. "Obviously, he's a quality ballplayer and he's going to be around awhile."
Sean Lowe, making his second appearance for the Royals, pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh when Tony Batista grounded into an inning-ending double play after he intentionally walked Jay Gibbons to load the bases.
"My first inning, I was a little scared, but I got out of it with a groundball, a life saver," Lowe said. "I said in the dugout when they walked Raul intentionally, that it's not going to work for them. Harvey's pretty hot right not, pretty clutch. That was a big, big hit."
Lowe (1-0) got the victory despite giving up a two-run homer to David Segui in the ninth.
Michael Tucker provided the Royals with an insurance run when he led off the eighth with his fifth home run, his third hit of the day.
The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in third. Mendy Lopez led off the inning with a single, advanced to third on Tucker's double and scored on Relaford's sacrifice fly. Ibanez' two-out double scored Tucker.
The Orioles tied the score in the fourth. Jay Gibbons opened with his seventh home run - his third in three games. With two outs in the fourth, Deivi Cruz singled and Geronimo Gil walked. Jerry Hairston singled home Cruz to tie it at 2.
The Royals regained the lead in the bottom half, when Mayne led off with a double and scored on a Lopez single. It was Lopez' fourth straight hit over two games.
Cruz homered off Darrell May in the sixth to tie the score at 3.
May allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. He is looking for his first victory, losing his first start and has no-decisions in next five starts.
Pat Hentgen, making his second start this season for the Orioles, gave up three runs and seven hits in five innings, but was pitching with a strained right groin.
"Pat had a real gutsy performance," Perlozzo said. "He actually tweaked his groin on his second warmup pitch. We were nursing him to get as far as we got. He did a tremendous job to get us where he got us."
Hentgen, who spent most of last season on the disabled list after undergoing elbow surgery, has replaced Rodrigo Lopez, who is on the disabled list with a strained muscle in his left side.
Notes: 2B Carlos Febles was held out of the Royals' lineup Sunday after being struck in the right hand while attempting to bunt Saturday. X-rays detected no break, but he has a cut on his ring finger. ... Kansas City 1B Mike Sweeney still his tightness in his right hamstring and has not played since Wednesday. ... Orioles manager Mike Hargrove is still not with the team, but with his mother Rita Ann Hargrove, who is hospitalized in Amarillo, Texas, after complications from gall bladder surgery.
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