MLB: Maikel Garcia homers as Royals beat Cardinals

ST. LOUIS: Maikel Garcia homered and scored three times to lead visiting Kansas City Royals past the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 in Major League Baseball (MLB) game here at Busch Stadium on Thursday.

Salvador Perez contributed two RBIs for the Royals and Freddy Fermin hit a solo homer.

Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans pitched for three innings permitting five runs on five hits and three walks, while striking out four.

Angel Zerpa (3-0) threw three scoreless innings allowing a single hit, one walk and striking out four. Steven Cruz also pitched for two scoreless innings and Carlos Estevez closed out the game for his 18th save.

Willson Contreras had two hits in four at-bats, scoring a run and contributing three RBIs and Nolan Arenado hit a two-run homer for the Cardinals.

Bobby Witt Jr. hit a single and Garcia launched his homer to put the Royals in front with a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

The Cardinals cut the deficit to 2-1 on a walk by Lars Nootbaar, then singles from Masyn Winn and Contreras in the first innings.

Fermin started the three-run rally by hitting a 406-foot homer, Jonathan India singled and scored, and a double by Garcia to give the Royals a 5-1 lead.

But the Cardinals scored four runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game 5-5. Winn walked, Brendan Donovan hit a single, Contreras hit a two-run double, and Arenado hit his two-run homer.

The Royals regained the lead 6-5 in the fourth inning with doubles by Mark Canha and Nick Loftin and extended it to 7-5 in the fifth when Garcia walked, stole second, took third on a groundout and scored on Perez's single.

The Royals will visit the Chicago White Sox on Friday night to begin a series.