Kansas City, Mo ? The only thing Darrell May wanted to talk about after winning his fifth straight start was Carlos Beltran’s catch.

Beltran reached over the center-field wall to rob Dan Wilson of a home run in the seventh inning, supporting May and helping the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-1, Saturday night.

“That was incredible,” May said. “That’s the best I’ve seen in a long while.”

The Kauffman Stadium crowd of 39,808 gave Beltran a standing ovation after the catch and again when he trotted to the dugout after the inning ended.

“That really changed the momentum of the game,” Beltran said. “After I make that play everybody was so excited. I was playing shallow when I saw that ball hit. I knew it was over my head and either off the wall or a home run. I just went back, jumped and tried to catch it. I was very happy it went into my glove.”

The Royals were leading, 2-1, when Beltran made the catch.

“I can’t remember a better one this year, especially considering the circumstances of the game,” Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. “If he doesn’t catch it, it’s a tie game. It takes a lot of athletic ability to do that.”

In eight innings, May (5-4) allowed three hits, none after Wilson’s double in the second inning. He has a 1.50 ERA in his past five starts. In that span, May has allowed 25 hits and six earned runs in 36 innings.

Not to be outdone, Royals right fielder Aaron Guiel made a diving catch of Ichiro Suzuki’s line drive to right to lead off the eighth.

“Carlos makes that catch and I make that catch on Ichiro and it can be demoralizing to come back to the dugout as a hitter and say, ‘I should have a hit, now what have we got to do,'” Guiel said.

The Royals scored three runs in the eighth. Michael Tucker and Angel Berroa opened with singles, and Gil Meche’s throwing error on Brent Mayne’s bunt single allowed Tucker to score; Berroa moved to third and Mayne to second.

Guiel, who has driven in eight runs in his past nine games, doubled to right to score Berroa and Mayne.

“That double gives us a little bit of cushion,” Guiel said.

Randy Winn homered, his third of the season, to left in the second on a 1-2 pitch for Seattle’s only run.

Mariners right-hander Meche (10-6) retired the first nine batters he faced before Guiel singled to lead off the fourth. Meche is 0-3 in four July starts. He allowed five runs and seven hits in six innings.

The Royals tied it in the fifth when Tucker led off with a walk and scored on Mayne’s double into the right-field corner. Mayne extended his hitting streak to a season-high seven games.

The Royals went ahead 2-1 in the sixth. Desi Relaford, who missed the previous three games because of a sore left wrist, doubled to open the inning and advanced to third on Beltran’s bunt single. Relaford scored when Raul Ibanez bounced into a double play.

Ibanez, who went 2-for-4, is hitting .433 (13-for-30) this season against the Mariners, his former club.

Notes: OF Dee Brown, who had been on the disabled list since May 28 because of a sprained left wrist, was activated. The Royals optioned IF Jarrod Patterson to Triple-A Omaha. … Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, who is on the DL because of broken ribs on his right side, threw 35 pitches in a bullpen session Saturday. … The Royals improved to 33-0 when holding their opponent to three or less runs. …The Mariners’ three hits tied their season-low. They also had three hits June 28 against San Diego. …The Royals are 11-4 in July.