KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Yordano Ventura was nearly flawless after the first inning, and he received offensive assistance from Kansas City Royals reserves Drew Butera and Christian Colon, who were making rare starts.

Ventura allowed three hits over seven innings, and Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer homered as the Royals overpowered the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 Sunday.

Ventura (2-0) yielded a run in the first inning but nothing after that. He allowed just a single and a walk after the first. His final line was one run on three hits, all singles, with two walks and four strikeouts. In his past two starts, he has given up three runs on nine hits in 12 innings.

"I have a lot of confidence right now," Ventura said through an interpreter. "I'm executing pitches, I'm concentrating hard on working hard on and off the field."

Butera, who was catching Ventura for the first time this season, said the 24-year-old pitcher has matured.

Gordon's opposite-field home run in the fourth tied the score.

Hosmer, who extended his hitting streak to 14 games, the longest active streak in the majors, homered in the sixth to break a 1-1 deadlock. Hosmer reached base in his 26th consecutive game dating to last season.

The Royals broke the game open with a four-run seven when they batted around and chased Orioles starter Mike Wright (1-2).

"The pitch to Gordon is exactly what I wanted to throw, a sinker down and away, exactly where I wanted to throw it," Wright said. "He hit a good pitch, and he hit it out. That's all you can do is tip your cap.

"The one to Hosmer, we threw a little bit slower slider, which if you look at wasn't a bad pitch. I felt pretty good about it. Was it my best pitch? No. It's my fourth-best pitch, and he got it. What can you do? That's the one pitch probably to Hosmer that I wish could take back, but the rest of the game -- perfect."

The seventh inning included run-producing doubles by Butera and Colon, while Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain contributed two-out RBI singles.

The bottom of the Royals' order -- Gordon, Colon, Jarrod Dyson and Butera -- combined to go 7-for-14 with a walk, four runs, three RBIs, three doubles and a home run. Butera did a hair flip at second base after one of his doubles.

"It started last year," Butera said. "Like everything else, it was (Salvador Perez's) idea. He yells at me until I do it."

Cain snapped an 0-for-10 skid with his single.

"I yelled at the dugout, 'Get me the ball,'" Cain said.

The Orioles (11-6) scored a run in the first off Ventura. Manny Machado drew a walk with one out, advanced to second on Adam Jones' infield single and scored on Mark Trumbo's two-out single to left. Trumbo drove in four runs in the Orioles' Saturday victory. Ventura threw 28 pitches in the first inning but only 71 the next six innings.

"It's not as much as what we didn't do but what he did do," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "Good pitchers are people that you know what they are going to do and they still do it. That's a tribute to his stuff. We just didn't do much offensively. We had a couple of infield hits and a couple of others and that's it. We didn't hit many balls hard."

Machado went 0-for-3, striking out twice, to snap his 16-game hitting streak, which was the longest by an Oriole to open a season since Davey Johnson had a 17-game streak to start the 1971 season.

Wright allowed five runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Kelvin Herrera and Danny Duffy each threw a scoreless inning to close out Kansas City's four-hitter.

The Royals (12-6) play 13 of their next 16 games on the road.

NOTES: Rookie RHP Tyler Wilson, who beat the Royals on Saturday in his first start, will remain in the Orioles' rotation, starting Thursday against the Chicago White Sox. ... C Salvador Perez, who started 16 of the first 17 Royals games, did not play Sunday, a day game after a night game. ... In another Royals lineup change, 2B Omar Infante, who was hitting .158 on the homestand, was rested. Christian Colon replaced him and batted seventh. ... Orioles SS J.J. Hardy was given the day off. 3B Manny Machado moved over to shortstop, making his second start there. ... RHP Ian Kennedy will start Monday at Anaheim as the Royals open a six-game trip. The Angels will counter with RHP Garrett Richards. ... Orioles RHP Kevin Gausman is scheduled to come off the disabled list Monday for a start at Tampa Bay. The Rays will start RHP Chris Archer, who is 0-4 with a 7.32 ERA.