KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Score more than three runs in a game, which the Royals haven't done much of lately, and the result is often positive.
So it was Saturday, when the Royals downed the Mariners, 5-3, before 30,659 at Kauffman Stadium.
The total was the most in a game in a week. The Royals had dropped five of six before Saturday and hadn't scored more than four in any of the games.
The go-ahead and insurance runs came about in different ways.
In the sixth, Paulo Orlando, who had struck out in each of his first two plate appearances, dribbled a swinging bunt to the right side that produced no throw. Brett Eibner followed with a walk.
Alcides Escboar's sacrifice attempt didn't work with Orlando thrown out at third by pitcher Wade Miley.
But Cheslor Cuthbert got a run home, his single to left scoring Eibner to give the Royals a 4-3 lead.
One inning later, the Royals did it the easy way, with Salvador Perez driving his 14th home run of the season off the left-field fair pole. Perez had his second home run in two days.
The outcome made a winner of starter Edinson Volquez, who improved his career record to 5-0 against the Mariners.
The Royals finished off their first save situation since closer Wade Davis went on the disabled list on Tuesday. Luke Hochevar worked around two base runners in the seventh. Joakim Soria was aided by Perez's pickoff throw at first base of Kyle Seager in the eighth.
It was Perez's first pickoff of the season and 18th of his career, the most in baseball since he entered the league in 2011.
Kelvin Herrera finished off the ninth, recording his first save since April, 2013, and the sixth of his career.
The Royals improved to 45-42 and wrap up the four-game series against the Mariners on Sunday. After that is the All-Star break.
The Royals' most productive inning in a week got off to an auspicious start when Perez led off the second. He took the first three pitches from Miley, who worked the count back to full. Surely, the swing-happy Perez would offer here.
But Perez watched ball four breeze by, and with his 13th walk of the season, Perez had matched his 2015 total, one game before the All-Star break.
Brett Eibner followed with a double to left center, putting two runners in scoring position, and here the Royals caught a break.
With one out, Escboar rolled a grounder to Seager at third, and Perez broke to the plate. Seager appeared to have a play with a good throw, but he bobbled the ball and turned his attention to the out at first.
The Royals had their first run of the season against Miley, who had blanked them in Seattle on April 30. But they were just getting started.
Cuthbert followed with an RBI double, and Whit Merrifield added one of his own, and the Royals had a 3-0 lead. Not since the five-run second inning in Philadelphia on July 2, highlighted by Kendrys Morales' three-run homer, had the Royals scored as many as three in an inning.
Seattle got it all back in a flash in the fourth.
Volquez had retired the first 11 Mariners with an efficiency of pitches until he got nicked by a pair of veterans _ singles by Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz _ and tagged by Seager. His 18th home run this season sailed over the center-field wall, landing some 427 feet away, and the Mariners had pulled even.
A base running gaffe by the Mariners could have cost them a run in the fifth. Adam Lind opened the inning with a double and moved to third Ketel Marte's single. With Leony Martin batting, Marte took off for second and pulled up short, ostensibly to get into a run down and give Lind enough time to attempt to score.
But Lind never started toward home. Matre was out in a rundown and Volquez worked out of the inning without further damage.
