It’s a new month and a new series for the Baltimore Orioles.

They’ll play their first game in May on Friday night against the visiting Kansas City Royals.

The Orioles were expected to be better than 12-18 at this stage of the season.

“Good teams have bad months,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re really focused on just one game at a time, one series at a time. Try to win as many series as possible.”

The Orioles have won three of their last 10 games, with two of those coming during this week’s three-game series with the New York Yankees. So it might seem like they’re heating up, even though their three most-recent victories have all come by one-run margins.

“Our guys responded, and hopefully that’s a stepping stone for us,” Hyde said. “It has been a lot of adversity. It hasn’t gone smooth at all. To win a series at home, get an off day and hopefully this is how we’re going to play going forward.”

The Royals (17-15) should be full of confidence after winning 8-2 on Thursday afternoon at Tampa Bay to sweep a three-game series.

Like the Orioles, Kansas City is a team that was highly touted coming into the season, but that didn’t show up much until the Royals won nine of their last 10 games.

Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals racked up his 300th career run batted in Thursday in his 501st game.

“He’s still 24 years old,” Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said. “For him to be an every-day player for three-plus years, that’s what’s remarkable to me. He’s learning on the fly at the big-league level and continuing to get better.”

Witt owns a 22-game hitting the streak, the longest current string in the majors.

Baltimore sends right-hander Dean Kremer (2-4, 7.04 ERA) to the mound for the series opener. He has worked into the sixth inning in each of his last three starts, but he allowed five earned runs in the previous two stints.

In four career starts covering 20 1/3 innings against the Royals, Kremer is 1-2 with a 3.98 ERA.

Hyde said the Orioles have pitching options for the series with the Royals because of Thursday’s off day and another off day coming Monday. So Charlie Morton, who has largely struggled other than Tuesday’s bullpen outing, will stay in a relief role at least through the weekend.

The Royals go with right-hander Michael Wacha (1-3, 3.38 ERA), whose lone victory in 2025 came last Saturday when he blanked the Houston Astros on four hits across six innings. Aside from the victory, it was notable for Wacha because for the first time this season he made it through the sixth inning.

Wacha is 3-2 with a 5.33 ERA in 12 all-time starts against Baltimore. He has surrendered 11 home runs to the Orioles in 54 innings.

Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle snapped an 0-for-18 skid with a home run Wednesday night. Getting him untracked would be a plus for Baltimore.

“It has been rough for him,” Hyde said. “There’s a lot of support around him right now.”

–Field Level Media