Kansas City, Mo. ? The Royals needed a game like this.

Michael Tucker tied a career-high with five RBIs as Kansas City roughed up Tim Hudson and beat the Oakland Athletics, 11-6, Friday night to stop a four-game losing streak.

“It was nice to see the boys step up, not only Michael but everybody,” Royals manager Tony Pena said.

Tucker hit a three-run homer in the third against Hudson and added a two-run double in the eighth off Ricardo Rincon, matching his RBI high, set for Atlanta at Cincinnati April 30, 1997.

Tucker’s homer was his seventh this season, the 100th of his career.

“The way the ball was carrying tonight, I had a pretty good idea it was going out of the ballpark,” he said.

Carlos Beltran homered and drove in three runs for Kansas City, which had lost nine of its previous 10 games against Oakland. The Royals (27-25) also had dropped five in a row at home since beating Baltimore on May 11 and had been 2-10 at Kauffman Stadium following an 11-0 start.

Since opening the year 16-3, the Royals are 11-22. They led the AL Central by 51¼2 games May 5, but dropped 41¼2 back of Minnesota Thursday before regaining a game Friday.

Kris Wilson (2-0) gave up two runs and three hits in the first inning then cruised through the next five. Overall, he gave up four runs and seven hits in 61¼3. Both his wins have come against the A’s.

“I know they’ll now have confidence in me when they need a spot starter,” Wilson said. “I’ve said all along that I believe I can help this team win games, whether it’s starting or relieving. I want to prove to them that I belong here. I’m not a minor league pitcher.”

Jason Grimsley relieved with a 9-2 lead in the seventh and allowed an RBI single to Chris Singleton and a three-run homer to Terrence Long.

Miguel Tejada doubled but was thrown out at the plate by Raul Ibanez when he tried to score from second on Erubiel Durazo’s single to left.

Hudson (4-2) gave up nine runs — six earned — and 10 hits in 32¼3 innings, his shortest outing since lasting three innings at Texas on Sept. 19, 2001. The nine runs allowed tied a career high, set May 4 last year against Chicago, when all the runs were earned.

His ERA rose from 2.68, which had been fourth-best in the AL, to 3.20.

“A pretty good shellacking tonight,” Oakland manager Ken Macha said. “A couple of splits up for home runs accounted for five of the runs off Hudson. When he made mistakes, those guys didn’t miss them. They were hit hard.”

Tejada’s sacrifice fly and Eric Chavez’s RBI grounder put Oakland ahead in the first, but Kansas City took a 3-2 lead in the bottom half on Ibanez’s RBI grounder and Mike Sweeney’s ninth homer, a two-run drive.

Desi Relaford had an RBI grounder in the second and Tucker homered with two outs in the third. The runs were unearned because Sweeney reached on an error by Mark Ellis leading off. Ellis has made eight errors, high among AL second basemen.

Hudson threw a run-scoring wild pitch in the fourth, and Beltran had a two-out RBI single that made it 9-2 and chased Hudson.

Notes: Long extended his consecutive games played streak to 452. … Byrnes’ double in the first extended his hitting streak to 20 games. … When the Royals led 3-2 after the first, it marked the first time since the first inning of the game May 18 against Toronto that Kansas City led at home. The Royals had trailed in 35 straight innings at home. … Grimsley’s appearance was his 29th of the season, most in the AL.