The Kansas City Royals scored seven early runs and cruised to a 10-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday.

Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia (7-4) looked like he was headed for another solid outing by retiring the first five batters of the game, but then the wheels fell off.

Two-out walks to Alberto Callaspo and Mike Aviles set the table for Wilson Betemit, who put a 1-1 fastball over the right field fence to make the score 3-1.

Kansas City added two runs in the third on singles from David DeJesus and Jose Guillen and two more in the fourth on a Jason Kendall double to extend the lead to 7-1.

Garcia only lasted two innings, giving up five runs on four hits and two walks.

Royals starter Bruce Chen pitched five solid innings, but looked as if he was headed for a disastrous outing. He loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning, but escaped giving up only one run on a Matt Holliday sacrifice fly.

Chen (4-2) threw 60 pitches through the first two innings, but at one point retired 11 straight Cards before Albert Pujols hit a solo home run in the fifth to cut the lead to 7-2. In all gave up two runs on two hits. He struck out five and walked four.

Kendall tacked on his third and fourth RBIs of the game in the eighth with another double and DeJesus brought him around after to put the game out of reach at 10-2.

Kyle Farnsworth, Robinson and Blake Wood combined to throw the final four innings, only giving up a meaningless home run to Colby Rasmus in the ninth to finish the game for Chen.

Royals outfielder Jose Guillen went 2-for-3 and extended his hitting streak to 21 games.