Luke Hochevar pitched one-hit ball over seven innings and Jeff Francoeur homered and had three RBIs to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 6-5 victory over the visiting Seattle Mariners on Friday.

Hochevar (2-1) allowed only a leadoff double to Ichiro Suzuki in the first inning and finished his stellar one-run performance by retiring the final 16 batters as the Royals (9-4) won their third straight game.

Francoeur went 3-for-4 and had a run-scoring single in the first inning and a two-run homer in the third to help send Seattle (4-10) to its third straight defeat.

The Mariners scored three runs in the ninth and had runners on first and third before Joakim Soria retired Chone Figgins on a liner to third base for his fourth save.

Kansas City led 4-1 after Matt Treanor’s fourth-inning homer. Michael Aviles delivered an RBI-double in the fifth and Billy Butler singled in a run in the sixth.

Hochevar struck four and walked two. He gave up a first-inning run when Ichiro scored on Jack Cust’s fielder’s choice.

Seattle scored in the eighth on Ichiro’s run-scoring single. The Mariners tallied three times in the ninth on Michael Saunders’ RBI-single, Justin Smoak’s based-loaded walk and Ichiro’s fielder’s choice.

Mariners starter Erik Bedard (0-3) gave up five runs – four earned – and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Butler also went 3-for-4 for Kansas City. Ichiro had two of Seattle’s five hits.