BALTIMORE -- During the bottom of the fourth inning, members of the Orioles’ grounds crew positioned themselves behind the tarp at Camden Yards. At the time, the O’s trailed by a run after John Means allowed a solo home run in the first inning.

After that, the lefty ace locked in.

Means tossed seven-plus innings for the first time since May 24, fanning five in the O’s 6-0 loss to the Royals in Thursday night’s series finale. Means took the mound in the eighth, but after allowing a leadoff double to Hunter Dozier, his night was over.

It was the fifth time this season that Means tossed at least seven innings while holding his opponent to two or fewer runs -- the last being on May 24, when he put up a near-identical stat line of seven innings, five hits, two runs and five strikeouts in a no-decision against the Twins.

With the rotation trending younger and Matt Harvey landing on the injured list prior to the finale with right knee inflammation, it was nice to see Means return to his beginning-of-the-season form.

Entering Thursday, Means ranked second in the Majors in first-pitch strike percentage -- trailing just Dodgers’ lefty Julio Urías. Of the 27 batters Means faced, 11 resulted in first-pitch strikes.

“I really liked his breaking balls tonight,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He didn't use his changeup as much as normal, it didn't seem like, but good fastball throughout and good breaking balls.”

Means employed a mix of pitches, using his four-seam fastball (31 percent), curveball (28 percent) and changeup (24 percent) in his 89 pitches overall. Based on his season average, Means relied more on his curveball and less on his four-seamer in his 22nd start.

So, Hyde was right. His starter wasn’t using as many changeups as he normally does.

“My changes kind of suck, to be honest,” said Means, when asked why he was leaning more on other pitches recently. “So the curveball was the pitch. That's been the pitch that has been more consistent right now.”

It makes sense. Means’ curveball was working lights out for him as he notched four strikeouts off the pitch -- a new single-game career high. While he throws the pitch just 15 percent of the time, prior to Thursday just 20 of his 109 strikeouts this season have come off the breaking pitch.

Despite taking the loss, Means looked more like the pitcher from April and May that the O’s have grown accustomed to. It was his 11th quality start of the season, which matched his career high set in 2019.

“It's baseball,” Means said. “I think that's kind of why the whole wins and losses for a pitcher are kind of going away. But you know, you still want to get the win. You still want to give your team a chance, and I try to do that every night.”

Hyde was impressed by his starter. However, the offense wasn’t able to provide any support. The O’s managed just three hits in being shut out for the ninth time this season as they split the four-game set. Baltimore won the season series (4-3) against the Royals.

“It was a tough time not putting the rally together,” Hyde said. “I thought we drove a few balls to the wall the first half of the game. … [Means] was in complete command of the game. They are an aggressive hitting team. He had a lot of low pitch count innings, not much traffic. He did a great job, just didn't score for him.”