KANSAS CITY -- Kauffman Stadium is regarded as a notoriously tough ballpark for hitting home runs, but you wouldn’t know it by the series that Orioles switch-hitter Anthony Santander is turning in.

Santander connected for two more homers in Saturday’s 7-5 loss to the Royals to give him three in the weekend series. A solo blast in the fourth and a three-run homer in the fifth gave Orioles fans a glimpse of Santander’s power-hitting ability. It marked the first two-homer game of Santander’s career, and continued his strong run since being recalled from Triple-A Norfolk on June 7.

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The four RBIs by Santander gave the Orioles a golden opportunity to ring up a fourth consecutive victory over the Royals in the season series, but suspect defense caught up with Baltimore. Two poor throws by catcher Chance Sisco on eighth-inning bunt plays loomed large, and Whit Merrifield snapped a tie with a sacrifice fly to boost Kansas City.

Santander homered from the left side of the plate against Jorge Lopez, and from the right side against lefty Tim Hill. He’s the youngest Orioles player (24 years, 316 days) to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game since 23-year-old Eddie Murray on Aug. 29, 1979.

“Having the opportunity to hit a homer from both sides of the plate is very unique,” Santander said through a translator. “I feel very excited about that.”

Santander’s three-run homer off Hill was particularly impressive to Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. It gave the Orioles a 5-4 lead in the fifth.

“He’s really showing the power,” Hyde said. “Against a side-winder, he was able to backspin the ball out to right-center, and you don’t see that all the time. It was a huge at-bat for us.”

If not for porous defense, Santander’s heroics might have resulted in a Baltimore win. An Orioles dropped fly ball and an errant throw on a double-play grounder helped the Royals take a 4-1 lead through four innings.

Santander overcame that bout of poor defense, but then the two bad throws by Sisco in the eighth helped Kansas City score twice.

Sisco tried to get the lead runner at second, and threw errantly on a bunt play. Then the Royals bunted again and Sisco threw errantly, missing the lead runner at third.

“Very frustrating,” Sisco said. “Got to make better plays. I felt like we should have had them on both plays.”