MILWAUKEE -- The Kansas City Royals bullpen is so good sometimes that it's almost unfair.

Take for example Monday night. Right-hander Greg Holland could not protect a six-run lead in the ninth inning, so with the tying run up and nobody out, manager Ned Yost turned to right-hander Wade Davis and just like that, game over.

Davis recorded the final three outs, stranding runners at second and third, to earn his eighth save and lock down an 8-5 Royals victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.

"That's a big security blanket, but what Wade did was phenomenal," Yost said. "You get into a ballgame where you've got a six-run lead going into the ninth inning and your closer is going out to finish it up, you naturally kind of drop your guard a bit. Wade didn't allow that to happen. He got himself up and came in and shut the door with the tying run at the plate."

The Royals needed him Monday after Holland, who himself came into the game with some gaudy numbers, put four consecutive batters on to open the ninth.

Milwaukee got two on a pinch-hit single by Martin Maldonado, who scored when catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit his second double of the day to make it a three-run game.

With right fielder Ryan Braun, first baseman Adam Lind and third baseman Aramis Ramirez -- the Brewers' 3-4-5 hitters -- due up, Yost made the switch.

"That's just rust, that's my fault," Yost said. "He hadn't pitched in six days and I had an opportunity to throw him a game in St. Louis, to try to keep him fresh.

"Just six days that's a lot of in-between time so, yeah, it was rough. Stuff was really good, but everything was kind of coming back to the middle. It's just location rust more than anything else."

Braun battled Davis to a full count before striking out and Lind followed with a rocket right at shortstop Alcides Escobar.

Davis got Ramirez to pop out to end it.

"It took him three pitches before he settled in," Yost said. "He got to 3-0 on Braun and then it was pretty lights out from that point."

Kansas City cruised for much of the game after getting to Brewers starter Kyle Lohse early. The Royals got three on the right-hander in the first inning, then made it a 5-0 game in the fifth when center fielder Lorenzo Cain belted his fifth home run of the season.

"It's tough to play down 5-0 when you're in a hole," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "(In) the first inning, he got behind in the count to a couple of guys and it was ground ball base hits, but I thought he got on track a little bit. The mistake to Cain hurt us."

Lohse was charged with five runs, all earned, on five hits, two walks and a hit batter while striking out two in five innings of work.

"They did a nice job of just putting the ball in play and putting it in the right spot early on," said Lohse, who is 0-3 with a 7.31 ERA in his last six starts. "I kind of shut them down for a while there and then a walk and not executing a good slider (on the home run). It put us in a big hole."

Lohse's counterpart, Edinson Volquez, didn't fare much better. He also went five innings and gave up six hits and two walks while striking out two, but the Brewers did little with the chances they got.

Both runs against Volquez came in the fifth on a two-run double by Lucroy.

Escobar added insurance runs with RBI singles in the sixth and eighth innings to finish the day with two hits.

Cain, along with catcher Salvador Perez, right fielder Alex Rios and second baseman Omar Infante also had two hits each for the Royals, who collected a total 13 hits off four Milwaukee pitchers

NOTES: Royals manager Ned Yost said RHP Yordano Ventura threw a 35-pitch bullpen session Monday but will not start Wednesday as originally scheduled. Instead Ventura will be bumped back to Friday against the Red Sox, giving h