KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Alex Gordon loves to face John Lackey.

Gordon homered as the Kansas City Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 Saturday night for their fifth straight victory.

The game was called after 5 1/2 innings because of heavy rain. There was a 70-minute delay before the game was officially called.

Right-hander Edinson Volquez (4-3) picked up the victory, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks. He worked out of bases loaded danger in the fifth after allowing a run.

Gordon is 7-for-14 with two home runs and four RBIs against Lackey.

"I really couldn't tell you," Gordon said on why he hits Lackey so well. "Sometimes it works that way. You see a guy better than someone else. Maybe after a couple of hits you start getting confidence someone."

Lackey (2-3) took the loss, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks with Gordon's blast decisive.

"They're a good ball club and they swing a lot early," Lackey said. "It was kind of a different game. We had a shot there with the bases loaded. They had a shot. Both teams got one run and it kept the game close."

The Cardinals scored a run in the second inning when shortstop Jhonny Peralta doubled. Right fielder Randal Grichuk and first baseman Matt Adams drew walks to load the bases with no outs.

Peralta scored on catcher Yadier Molina's hopper to third baseman Mike Moustakas, but that was all Volquez would give up.

Molina's grounder took a bad hop off Moustakas' left clavicle. He left after four innings with a bruise and is listed as day to day.

The Cardinals run snapped a 27-inning scoreless inning streak by Royals starting pitchers, one shy of the club record set in 1974.

Gordon, the Royals' left fielder, made the Cardinals' lead disappear in the bottom of the inning. Designated hitter Kendrys Morales, who hit two home runs Friday, opened the inning with a single to left.

Gordon pounced on a 90 mph fastball and drove it over the right-field wall.

"I was just looking for that fastball away, something to drive and was able to get it," Gordon said. "I put a good swing on it."

The Royals added a run in the fourth. First baseman Eric Hosmer opened with a double and moved to second on a Morales flyout. Lackey walked Gordon intentionally, but catcher Salvador Perez grounded a run-producing single to left to foil the Cardinals' strategy.

Lackey walked second baseman Omar Infante to load the bases with one out but prevented further damage by retiring right fielder Jarrod Dyson on an infield popup and shortstop Alcides Escobar on a fly ball to Grichuk.

The Cardinals cut the Royals' lead to one run in the fifth on successive one-out singles by center Peter Bourjos, second baseman Kolten Wong and third baseman Matt Carpenter.

St. Louis had a chance for a bigger inning when Volquez hit left fielder Matt Holliday with a pitch to load the bases with one out, but Peralta grounded into a double play to end the inning.

"Peralta has good numbers against me," Volquez said. "Salvy called a fastball down and away and I trusted him. That was a special pitch."

And with the rain set in to last for several hours, the Royals gained a shortened victory.

"We do what we're told," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "It didn't surprise me. Once it came we knew it was going to be here for a while and everything on the radar looks like it."

NOTES: OF Jason Heyward was held out of the Cardinals' lineup with hip tightness. ... Royals backup C Erik Kratz homered Friday for Triple-A Omaha while on a minor league rehab assignment. He is on the disabled list with left plantar fasciitis. ... Mark Reynolds, who had struck out 33 times in 89 at-bats, was the Cardinals DH. ... Sunday's matchup features two of the best young pitchers in the majors: Cardinals RHP Michael Wacha, who is 6-0 in his first eight starts, and Royals RHP Yordano Ventura, who threw seven scoreless innings against the New York Yankees in his previous start. ... When Royals Morales knocked in all five runs on Friday night, he became only the second player in the past 10 years to have five or more RBIs with those being the only runs of the game. The other was Neal Walker of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2012 against the Chicago Cubs.