Royals 7, Orioles 1: Jeremy Guthrie worked six strong innings and Alex Gordon drove in a pair of runs as Kansas City handed visiting Baltimore its third straight loss.

Billy Butler homered and rookie David Lough added two RBIs for the Royals (48-51), who took three of four in the series to pull within three games of .500.

Guthrie (10-7), who pitched for the Orioles from 2007-2011, allowed one run on six hits while striking out five. The veteran right-hander has yielded a total of two runs in two starts against his former team.

Kansas City pushed across two runs in the first inning on RBI singles from Salvador Perez and Lough before Gordon’s sacrifice fly in the second pushed it to 3-0. Baltimore got on the board with Brian Roberts’ sacrifice fly in the fifth but Kansas City broke things open with three runs in the bottom of that frame, highlighted by Gordon’s RBI triple.

Miguel Gonzalez (8-4) suffered the brunt of the damage for Baltimore and was charged with six runs on eight hits in a season-low 4 2/3 innings.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Hall of Famer George Brett resigned as the interim hitting coach of the Royals. Brett will return to the front office, where he served as vice president of baseball operations until he took over as hitting coach on May 30. … Gonzalez had surrendered three or fewer earned runs in each of his previous eight starts. … Kansas City will open up a nine-game road trip at Chicago on Friday while the Orioles will head home for a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox.