Kansas City, Mo. ? All the Kansas City Royals needed to do to break out of a monthlong skid was to get back to interleague play.

Willie Bloomquist had three hits and three RBIs, and Billy Butler had three hits and drove in two runs, and the Royals defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 7-4, Saturday night.

The Royals won back-to-back games for the first time since May 17-19. By winning the first two games over the Reds, the Royals have won a series for the first time since May 5-6, going 0-9-1 in their previous 10 series. They had a stretch of 23 losses in 30 games.

“I think it’s been overanalyzed the little funk we were in,” Bloomquist said. “Hopefully, we’re beyond that now and back to playing just the way we’re capable of playing.”

Playing National League clubs for 15 straight games could be the tonic the Royals need. They went 33-21 against NL teams the previous three years.

“Everybody knows we’ve had a tough five weeks and hadn’t put a lot of wins on the board,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

Kyle Davies (3-6), who was 0-5 with two no-decisions in his previous seven starts, picked up his first victory since April 30. Davies gave up two hits, but walked five and hit a batter in allowing three runs in five-plus innings.

“I obviously didn’t want to go a walk per inning,” Davies said. You’re putting guys on base. You’ve got to be more consistent in the zone. I was throwing a lot of pitches. I know I had my fielders on their feet. The offense picked me up.”

Reds right-hander Bronson Arroyo gave up 11 hits, and five runs in the first three innings to take the loss. Arroyo (7-5), who was pulled after walking Mitch Maier to lead off the sixth, allowed six runs total.

“I had pretty good stuff, not great-great but decent,” Arroyo said. “They just fought me hard. I don’t know a lot of those guys very well and they didn’t know me as well. Bloomquist put on two good at-bats to start the game and that hurt me big time as they scored two runs. They hit balls that I made mistakes on and they hit some decent pitches in the hole. It just cost me more runs than we could afford.”

Bloomquist hit a two-run single in the Royals’ three-run second. Butler, who extended his hitting streak to nine games, singled home David DeJesus with the other run.

“We were 7-for-12 with runners in scoring position,” Bloomquist said. “That’s been big for us. We haven’t been getting that done as much as we would like lately.”