Baltimore ? Once Miguel Asencio figured out how to avoid trouble in the first inning, his initial complete game in the major leagues came easy.

Asencio pitched a seven-hitter and Mike Sweeney and Ken Harvey homered, helping the Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2, Friday night to stop a four-game losing streak.

Now in his second season, Asencio (2-0) never pitched more than seven innings in any of his previous 26 starts. On this night, however, he effortlessly threw 114 pitches, striking out six and walking three.

“It was my night. Everything that I wanted to throw went where I wanted,” the right-hander said.

He had encountered difficulty this year in the first inning, but pregame work with pitching coach John Cumberland led to a 1-2-3 first for Baltimore, and Asencio was on his way.

“The first inning tonight was aggressive, aggressive. Everything,” Asencio said.

Kansas City trailed 2-0 until Sweeney and Harvey homered in a four-run sixth against Rick Helling (1-3). Kansas City improved to 18-8, the best record in franchise history after 26 games.

The victory was the first for the Royals against Baltimore since 2001. Kansas City was outscored 55-16 in going 0-7 versus the Orioles last year.

More importantly, the victory got the Royals back on track after a season-high four-game skid.

“I think it shows how special our young pitchers are,” Sweeney said. “We were in kind of a funk — it’s really the first speed bump we’ve had this year — and we needed one of our young guns to step up. Miguel did that and more tonight.”

Brook Fordyce homered for the Orioles, whose four-game winning streak ended.

In the sixth, Carlos Beltran drew a leadoff walk before Sweeney hit a 2-0 pitch into the left-field seats, his seventh homer of the season and second in two games.

“You don’t expect guys to hit balls knee-high on the black outside of the ballpark,” Helling said. “But that’s why he’s an All-Star.”

One out later, Harvey hit his fourth home run. Brent Mayne then walked and Carlos Febles chased Helling with a single before Desi Relaford hit an RBI single off Rick Bauer.

“Helling was hitting his spots and had good stuff, and then all of a sudden in the sixth he got out of rhythm,” Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. “Then he made a couple of mistakes to two good hitters.”

That was enough to enable Asencio to record his first victory since April 10, although he has yet to lose in six starts this season.

“His total pitches were down, and that’s one thing that we are very big on,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “If he would’ve gotten in trouble, of course, I would’ve used my bullpen right away.”

Joe Randa extended his hitting streak to 11 games with an RBI single off Bauer in the ninth.

Baltimore went up 1-0 in the second. Jeff Conine got a leadoff triple on a liner that eluded diving right fielder Dee Brown, and Jay Gibbons followed with a sacrifice fly.

Tony Batista then walked and Larry Bigbie doubled, but Batista was thrown out at the plate after running through the stop sign of third base coach Tom Trebelhorn.

Baltimore got runners on the corners with one out in the fourth before Asencio retired Batista on a short fly and struck out Bigbie. Fordyce led off the fifth with his first home run since May 30 for a 2-0 lead.