Billy Butler was a single shy of the cycle. He went 3 for 5 with a three run homer, his 23rd of the year and Alex Gordon led the game off with his seventh homer of the season as the Royals beat Baltimore 8-2.

Butler homered in a four-run first inning, doubled in the third and tripled in the fifth. Vying to become the first Kansas City player to hit for the cycle since George Brett in 1990, Butler struck out against Matt Lindstrom in the seventh and submariner Darren O’Day in the ninth.  “They pitched me tough with some really good sliders. O’Day is not somebody a right-hander is going to have much success against at all. I know I haven’t in my history. I’m just trying to take him the other way and it just didn’t work out. He’s going to get most righties out all of the time.”

Butler is 11 for 24 (.458) with three homers and five RBIs in six games against Baltimore this season.