The St. Louis Cardinals continued their hot streak, taking down the Kansas City Royals 10-3 Friday night at Kauffman Stadium.

The Cardinals struck first, scoring a run off a wild pitch in the second inning. St. Louis added to their lead in the fourth with RBI hits from Willson Contreras and Ivan Herrera.

Vinnie Pasquantino responded in the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer off of Andre Pallante. Kansas City brought in another run off Pallante after a balk in the fifth.

Royals starter Cole Ragans exited the game with no outs in the sixth after suffering left groin tightness. He finished the day going five innings, allowing four runs on five hits, with seven strikeouts.

The Cardinals blew the game open in the sixth after Herrera drove in three with a bases-clearing double. St. Louis continued to add more runs in the later innings, with RBI hits from Brendan Donovan and Jordan Walker, as well as a sac-fly from Nolan Arenado.

Pallante picked up the win, giving up two runs across seven innings of work. Herrera finished with three hits, four RBIs, and two runs scored.

The Cardinals improve to 25-20, having won 11 of their last 12 games. The Royals fall to 25-21, sitting fourth in the AL Central and 5.5 games back of Detroit. Game 2 of the I-70 series continues Saturday. Pregame begins at 5:30 p.m., with first pitch at 6:10 on KMMO FM 102.9.