KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Mike Matheny had four RBIs, and Scott Rolen and Edgar Renteria each had three hits and scored three runs, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 10-3 victory Sunday for their first sweep of the Kansas City Royals.

The Cardinals’ fifth straight win pushed them a season-high 17 games over .500 and five games ahead in the NL Central. They’ve won 13 of their last 17 on the road.

In interleague games against Kansas City, Texas and Oakland, the Cardinals are 8-1.

The fading Royals, in contrast, lost their fourth in a row and dropped a season-low 16 games under .500. They have been swept seven times and are winless since trading star center fielder Carlos Beltran to Houston on Thursday.

Rolen was 3-for-4 with an RBI in the eighth. He also triggered a roar from the crowd in the eighth when his hard slide on a double-play grounder knocked both shortstop Angel Berroa and second baseman Tony Graffanino to the ground.

Jason Marquis (7-4) labored through five innings for his sixth win in eight starts. Working out of bases-loaded jams in the first and fifth, he was charged with three runs on seven hits, with one walk and four strikeouts.

The Cardinals scored three times off Jimmy Gobble (4-5) in the third on Matheny’s two-run single and a sacrifice fly by So Taguchi. Reggie Sanders and Hector Luna each had an RBI single in the third.

Matheny’s two-run single keyed a four-run fifth for the Cardinals, who also got an RBI grounder from Taguchi and a run-scoring single by Sanders.

Gobble went 4 1-3 innings and gave up seven runs on eight hits.

The Royals loaded the bases with none out in the fourth. Dee Brown’s sacrifice fly brought in one run, and another scored when shortstop Renteria bobbled Alberto Castillo’s grounder for an error. Graffanino’s RBI single made it 5-3.

The Royals failed to score after loading the bases in the first and fifth, and they stranded 10 runners. In a 3-1 loss Saturday night, they stranded 12.

Notes: Rain caused a 59-minute delay before the start of the game. … The Royals have used five catchers in seven games since Benito Santiago went on the disabled list with a broken hand. … Kansas City put LHP Jeremy Affeldt on the 15-day DL with strained muscles in his rib cage and recalled Justin Huisman from Triple-A Omaha. … Royals bench coach Bob Scheafer was ejected by plate umpire Jim Reynolds in the fourth. … Royals DH Ken Harvey was hit by a pitch in the first inning and was replaced by Joe Randa when he next batted in the third. … The Cardinals’ June record of 18-6 is their best June since going 20-7 in 1993.