BALTIMORE (AP) — Billy Butler came within a single of hitting for the cycle, and the Kansas City Royals beat Baltimore 8-2 on Thursday night to end the Orioles’ five-game winning streak and take the luster off Manny Machado’s impressive major league debut.
Butler homered in a four-run first inning, doubled in the third and tripled in the fifth. Needing only a single to become the first Kansas City player to complete the cycle since George Brett in 1990, Butler struck out in the seventh and again the ninth.
He did, however, finish with three RBIs and scored three runs. Butler is 11 for 24 (.458) with three homers and five RBIs in six games against Baltimore this season.
Machado, the third overall pick in the 2010 draft, went 2 for 4 and played flawlessly at third base in his first game above the Double-A level.
