KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Charlie Morton thought it was a good pitch, but the results were disastrous.

Mike Moustakas hit the fastball over the right-field fence for a three-run homer with two out in the seventh inning to lift the Kansas City Royals to a 5-1 over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.

The count was 3-0, but Moustakas was given the green light.

“It was right where I wanted it,” Morton said. “He was obviously looking in. It was right up on his hands. He was cheating in, I guess. He hit a heater, so he probably was looking for it.”

Manager Clint Hurdle said he did not consider pulling Morton.

“We had the lefthander up in case the inning got away, and then the inning got away,” Hurdle said. “I wanted to give Charlie every opportunity to walk off that field feeling pretty good. He threw his good curveball to the hitter before and punched him out. He got Moose three times tonight. I had four or five reasons. At the end of the day, I’m wrong and you wear it.”

Edinson Volquez (9-5), who won 13 games last season for the Pirates, picked up his first victory since June 26. He allowed one run on eight hits, while walking one and striking out eight.

“He was just bearing down,” said Neil Walker, who drove in the Pirates’ only run with a sacrifice fly. “He was making good pitches. He was mixing his breaking ball. He was throwing his fastball in good spots. He was keeping guys off balance. That’s what good pitchers do. He had a good year last year for us, and he’s doing the same over here.”

“I wanted a complete game,” Volquez said. “I get two easy outs in the eighth and then give up singles to (Andrew) McCutchen and (Starling) Marte. I was hoping to stay in the game, but the skipper came out and I said, `oh man.’ Ned (Yost) said, `See all those people in the stands, they’re going to give you a standing ovation.’ I said, all right, I’ll take that.”

Moustakas homered with two out in the eighth with Alex Rios and Jarrod Dyson aboard.

Dyson’s bunt single scored Omar Infante with the first run of the inning.

Morton (6-4) allowed five runs on seven hits, two of them home runs, walked one, hit two batters and struck out four. He is 1-3 in his past five starts, inflating his ERA from 1.62 to 4.59.

Eric Hosmer hit his ninth home run, matching his 2014 total, in the fourth for the other Kansas City run. Hosmer went 101 at-bats since his previous homer on June 19.

Neil Walker’s sacrifice fly in the third scored Jaff Decker for the only Pittsburgh run.

The Pirates went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position off Volquez. Opponents are hitting just .186 off Volquez with runners in scoring position.

“We pushed him four different innings with two runners on,” Hurdle said. “He’s shown up well this year on batting average against with runners in scoring position. We saw more of that tonight. One inning we lined out twice. We just had poor aim.”

The Pirates have lost five of six since the All-Star break. The Royals have won six of eight and top the American League with 57 victories.

Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli missed his second straight game with a right wrist bruise, but manager Clint Hurdle said he would likely return to the lineup Thursday.