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Guthrie, Royals cruise past Reds

May 21, 2015 - 5:50 AM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Alex Gordon and Kendrys Morales each drove in two runs, Jeremy Guthrie tossed six scoreless innings and the Kansas City Royals beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-1 on Wednesday.

When Guthrie walked off the mound, the Royals had matched a club record that had stood for nearly four decades.

The pitching staff had combined to throw 24 consecutive scoreless innings for the first time since 1976. The streak ended in the seventh, when reliever Ryan Madson surrendered a run.

The Royals won Sunday's finale of a three-game series with the New York Yankees 6-0, then handed the Reds a 3-0 defeat in Tuesday's opener of this brief two-game series.

Guthrie (4-2) won his third straight start. He gave up five hits while striking out three and walking two.

Kansas City is 26-14, the best 40-game start in franchise history.

"It's a real strong feeling that every time we walk through that door, we're going to win the baseball game," said Royals manager Ned Yost.

Jason Marquis (3-4), on the other hand, lost his third consecutive start. He allowed four runs on four hits over 3 2/3 innings.

Brandon Phillips went 3-for-5 with an RBI for the Reds, who have lost five in a row.

The Reds wasted a golden scoring opportunity in the first. Phillips singled and Joey Votto and Todd Frazier walked to load the bases with one out. But Marlon Byrd struck out swinging and Jay Bruce flied out.

"We cannot stop moving forward," said Votto. "Any time you let the numbers on the scoreboard or in the newspaper dictate how you react, you're going to be in big trouble."

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the second. Eric Hosmer led off with a double, moved to third on Morales' groundout and scored on Gordon's sacrifice fly.

Kansas City tacked on three more runs in the fourth. Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain got things going with back-to-back singles, and both moved up on a wild pitch. Moustakas crossed the plate when Hosmer reached on a fielder's choice. After Hosmer stole second, Morales hit a sacrifice fly. Hosmer raced home on Salvador Perez's single to left.

The home team scored another run in the fifth. Ryan Mattheus loaded the bases with no outs before getting Cain to ground into a double play. Paulo Orlando scored on the play.

Cincinnati finally got on the board in the seventh. Madson gave up a two-out single to Zack Cozart, who raced home on Phillips' double.

Kansas City added two insurance runs off Raisel Iglesias in the eighth. Cain reached on a fielder's choice, moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third and raced home on Morales' double. Gordon followed with an RBI single.

Game Notes

The Royals are now 7-1 in the previous eight games against the Reds ... Marquis fell to 3-1 lifetime against the Royals ... Reds pitcher Sean Marshall had season-ending surgery Wednesday to clean out his left shoulder ... Moustakas had three of Kansas City's 10 hits.