Kansas City, Mo. ? Rookie Ken Harvey quickly is gaining a reputation as a clutch hitter.

Harvey hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning, helping the Kansas City Royals top the Baltimore Orioles, 8-4, Saturday night. The Royals snapped a four-game losing streak; K.C. had dropped 10 of 14.

Harvey connected off reliever Buddy Groom (1-2) for his fifth home run. Harvey has seven game-tying or go-ahead hits in his past 18 games.

“I take the same approach late in the game as I do early in the game,” Harvey said. “I stay positive and have confidence in myself. I guess things haven’t been going my way early in games.

“You have the feeling you want to come through in that situation. The crowd is into it. The adrenaline is flowing. I like my attitude in the box, but the reality is you want to calm yourself down. I was just ecstatic as anybody would be in that situation after the ball went out.”

Harvey is batting just .243 on the season but comes through with key hits when his team needs them.

“Harvey is a RBI man,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “Every time he sees runners in scoring position, he comes through.”

Groom gave up a home run, double and single to the only three batters he faced.

“(Harvey) had to be looking inside to get it,” Groom said. “I don’t know if he got some help from (Raul Ibanez) at second base, but he couldn’t have got it without looking in there.”

Mike DiFelice, who is 8-for-15 with runners in scoring position, hit a two-run double in the fourth-run Kansas City eighth.

Kansas City rookie Ken Harvey watches the flight of his two-run home run in the eighth inning. Harvey's blast lifted the Royals to an 8-4 victory Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles in Kansas City, Mo.

Rookie D.J. Carrasco (2-1) worked two hitless innings.

Royals second baseman Carlos Febles was hit in the right hand by a pitch from Jason Johnson while trying to bunt in the fifth and was taken to a hospital for X-rays.

“It is not broken, that is the good news,” Febles said. “It’s a cut at the bottom of my ring finger where the bat pinched it.”

Jay Gibbons, who homered and had two doubles in going 5-for-9 against the Royals in a doubleheader sweep Friday, hit a two-run homer for a 4-1 lead in the sixth.

Chris George did not allow the Orioles a hit until Deivi Cruz’s one-out single in the fifth.

Geronimo Gil doubled home Cruz and later scored on Jerry Hairston’s sacrifice fly.

Johnson lowered his ERA to 2.21, third best in the AL, holding the Royals to one run and five hits for five innings, but came out because of a blister on the middle finger of his right hand, which has bothered him in past starts.

Royals catcher Mike Difelice, right, tries to catch the ball as Baltimore's Geronimo Gil slides safely into home. The Royals beat the Orioles, 8-4, Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

“It’s the same finger again,” Orioles acting manager Sam Perlozzo said. “I don’t know the extent of it. It’s a nagging thing that keeps cropping up. It was a windy day and he had to wet his fingers in between pitches, which might have something to do with it.”

Joe Randa, who was in a 1-for-23 slump, hit a two-out double in the Royals’ fifth to score Angel Berroa. Desi Relaford, who had three hits, attempted to score from first on Randa’s hit, but slipped between third and home and was out in a rundown.

The Royals scored three times in the seventh to tie it at 4. DiFelice hit an RBI single and Relaford greeted Kerry Ligtenberg with a run-producing single. Randa’s groundout brought home DiFelice.

Notes: 1B Mike Sweeney, who has not played since leaving the game Wednesday because of tightness in his right hamstring, was held out of the Royals’ lineup again Saturday. … Orioles manager Mike Hargrove left the club Saturday to be with his ailing mother, who is hospitalized in Amarillo, Texas. … Carlos Beltran played center field for the first time since May 2 for the Royals. He had been restricted to DH duties the previous four games because of a sore right shoulder, which limited his throwing. … Gary Matthews Jr., who is in a 4-for-33 skid in his past nine games, batted seventh for the Orioles the first time this season. He had batted second in 21 games.