Whit Merrifield hit two homers and drove in six runs, and Homer Bailey pitched 7 2/3 strong innings as the Kansas City Royals defeated the host Seattle Mariners 9-0 Tuesday night.

Jorge Soler also homered, and rookie Nicky Lopez went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs for Kansas City, which has won the first two games of the series and will look for a sweep Wednesday afternoon.

Bailey (6-6) allowed five hits, walked two and struck out six. It was his second consecutive start in which the right-hander didn't allow any runs, as Bailey pitched six scoreless innings in a 7-3 victory against the Detroit Tigers last Thursday in Omaha, Neb.

Mariners rookie left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (3-5) allowed six runs on nine hits in five innings, with two walks and five strikeouts. Kikuchi took his fourth loss in his past five starts.

The Royals got to Kikuchi early, scoring twice in the first.

Merrifield led off with a line-drive single to right field and advanced to third on Adalberto Mondesi's single to center. Mondesi stole second, his major-league-leading 27th theft of the season, before Alex Gordon lined a two-run single to center on a 3-0 count.

The Royals added to their lead in the third Soler's solo shot to center with one out, his 20th of the season and his second in as many games. His go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning Monday helped the Royals to a 6-4 victory and snapped their nine-game losing streak to the Mariners.

Kansas City doubled the advantage in the fourth to make it 6-0.

With one out, Lopez lined a single to right field and Billy Hamilton followed with a double to left. Merrifield then hit a 3-1 pitch from Kikuchi over the wall in left field, his ninth of the season.

The Royals added a run in the sixth off right-hander Matt Festa. Lopez led off with a double to center, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Merrifield's sacrifice fly.

Merrifield hit a two-run shot to left-center off left-hander Jesse Biddle in the eighth to cap the scoring.

--Field Level Media