Moustakas drives in nine in 14-6 win at Baltimore

Today's game was set to start at noon, and was scheduled to air nationally on FOX. Neither thing happened, as the ground crew laid out the tarp and a delay was announced. It did not begin to rain until about an hour into the delay.

Finally, three hours and two minutes after the scheduled start time, baseball happened.

By the middle of the third, things looked manageable for the Royals. Baltimore's Chris Tillman had thrown more pitches than Yordano Ventura, and the game was tied 1-1. Ventura had been in trouble in the first inning, loading the bases with one out, but only one run scored.

In the second, Salvador Perez singled home Eric Hosmer, who had reached by walking and advanced when Kendrys Morales grounded out.

The third is where things tilted in favor of the home team. Ventura yielded a single to Manny Machado and walked Chris Davis. This set the table for Adam Jones to hit the Earl Weaver Special, a three-run home run, to put Baltimore up 4-1.

Kansas City went down quickly in the top of the fourth, requiring Tillman to throw just 10 pitches.

Ventura took a hit off his hand in the fourth, but came back to get out of the inning.

Alex Gordon led off the top of the 6th by drawing a walk, which Ben Zobrist followed with a single. Lorenzo Cain grounded to Machado at third, who threw out Zobrist at second, but Cain beat the throw to first. Eric Hosmer dropped a single into left-center to score Gordon, cutting Baltimore's lead to 4-2 and ending Tillman's day.

Brian Matusz came in for Baltimore, but his performance was most likely not what Buck Showalter wanted. He walked Morales, then allowed a two-run single to Mike Moustakas to tie the game at four with one out. Chaz Roe was the next reliever, and he didn't fare much better, allowing a two-run single to Salvador Perez.

Alex Rios kept the line moving, doubling to left field and moving Perez to third. Alcides Escobar grounded out, but as the out was made, Perez got himself caught between third and home with nowhere to go. The double play ended the Royals rally, but they carried a 6-4 lead out of an inning that started with them trailing by two.

Baltimore baserunners also wandered away from their bases in the bottom of the inning, but the Royals were not able to catch either J.J. Hardy or Jimmy Paredes. Ned Yost allowed Ventura to face Machado. A fastball got away from Ventura and clipped Machado's hip, bringing up Chris Davis with the bases loaded.

Ryan Madson entered the game in this perilous situation, and struck Davis out on four pitches to bail out Ventura.

The Royals extended the lead in the 7th, when once again Gordon and Zobrist reached base to lead off an inning. Lorenzo Cain drove in Gordon with a double. After a Hosmer groundout, Baltimore elected to intentionally walk Morales. This decision came back to haunt the Orioles in the biggest way possible, thanks to a grand slam from Moustakas. It was Moose's 2nd career grand slam, the first one back in 2012.

Moustakas was far from finished, however. In the top of the 9th, he hit another home run, this one for three runs. That gave the Royals a 14-6 lead, and gave Moose a total of nine (!) RBI.

The Royals and Orioles will wrap up this series tomorrow evening as ESPN's featured game. Johnny Cueto will face Wei-Yin Chen (8-7, 3.48 ERA).