(Sports Network) - The Baltimore Orioles resume a road trip that's been a nightmare so far with the first of four consecutive meetings against the Kansas City Royals tonight at Kauffman Stadium.

After beginning their 10-game trek with a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Orioles have lost a season-high five straight contests. Baltimore is coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of Oakland, which culminated with an extra-inning defeat on Wednesday.

Mark Ellis extended the Orioles' woes with a game-winning solo homer in the bottom of the 10th inning that gave the Athletics a 6-5 decision. The blast came with two outs in the frame and was served up by reliever Lance Cormier.

Baltimore held a 5-4 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth, but a costly fielding error by third baseman Melvin Mora led to Oakland scoring the tying run.

Nick Markakis had three hits for the Orioles and Brian Roberts had two RBI in a losing effort. Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie surrendered four runs and struck out six batters in a 5 2/3-inning no-decision.

The Orioles will attempt to get back on track tonight against a team they've had a lot of success against in recent years. Baltimore has won nine straight matchups with Kansas City and took all seven meetings between the clubs last season. Since the start of the 2005 campaign, the O's are an astounding 16-3 against the Royals and 7-2 at Kauffman Stadium.

Daniel Cabrera, who will start for Baltimore in tonight's opener, has also fared well when facing Kansas City over the course of his career. The hard- throwing Dominican is 3-0 with a 2.57 earned run average in six starts against the Royals and has emerged victorious in both of his previous outings at Kauffman Stadium.

Cabrera is on a pretty good roll as well, as the right-hander has yielded three runs or less in each of his five starts. He did receive a tough-luck loss in Anaheim this past Saturday, a game in which Cabrera held the Angels to three runs and struck out a season-best six batters over 7 1/3 innings.

Kansas City dropped the first two tests of its current 10-game homestand, with both setbacks coming to the Angels, but avoided a series sweep by recording a 9-4 triumph over Anaheim last night. David DeJesus belted a three-run homer for the Royals, while both Mark Grudzielanek and Jose Guillen went 3-for-3 with two runs scored to lead a 14-hit attack for the hosts.

Alex Gordon added a two-run homer for Kansas City and John Buck contributed two hits along with an RBI to the winning effort.

Royals starter Zack Greinke (4-1) did his part on the mound as well, as the young standout worked seven innings and allowed just three runs on five hits while racking up eight strikeouts.

Kansas City will send out another highly-regarded young pitcher tonight, when Luke Hochevar aims for a third straight winning start.

Hochevar, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2006 draft, threw six innings of one- run ball to defeat Toronto on April 26 and backed that effort up with a strong performance at Cleveland on Saturday. The University of Tennessee product limited the Indians to two runs and three hits while notching six strikeouts over six innings of work in a 4-2 Royals' victory.

The 24-year-old, who faces Baltimore for the first time tonight, is 2-1 with a 4.86 ERA in three starts since being promoted from Triple-A Omaha in mid- April.