St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Eric Hosmer drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning to complete the Kansas City Royals' 8-7 comeback victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

The Royals faced a 4-0 deficit early on and trailed 7-6 before Alcides Escobar tied things with a RBI single in the eighth.

Hosmer followed Omar Infante's one-out double in the ninth with a single to left field off Trevor Rosenthal (0-3), and Infante beat Matt Holliday's off- target throw to the plate.

Wade Davis (5-1) recorded his 13th straight scoreless appearance in the eighth to pick up the victory, Kansas City's fourth in its last six games, and Greg Holland posted his 16th save with a flawless ninth.

Alex Gordon belted a three-run homer to highlight a 13-hit attack for the Royals, who finished an efficient 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

"We grinded our way to a win," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "It was a tough one."

St. Louis went 2-7 on a disappointing homestand despite receiving a grand slam by Kolten Wong and a solo homer from Peter Bourjos.

Kansas City's bullpen limited the hosts to one hit after James Shields labored through his shortest outing of the season, having allowed seven runs -- five earned -- over 5 1/3 innings.

The Cardinals wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the first inning when Yadier Molina bounced into a double play, but they loaded the bags again in the second for Wong, who turned on a middle-in offering and sent it over the wall in right field for his first career home run.

"It came at a great time," Cards manager Mike Matheny said. "We needed that. It was a great spark."

The slam snapped a string of 20 consecutive scoreless innings for St. Louis, but the Royals jumped ahead with a six-spot off Jamie Garcia in the fifth.

Escobar tripled in Mike Moustakas and scored when Shields one-hopped the wall in left for a double. Shields raced home as Norichika Aoki slapped a base hit down the third-base line, and after Garcia plunked Hosmer on a 2-2 pitch with two away, Gordon found the right-field seats for a go-ahead three-run blast.

St. Louis answered with two runs in the bottom half, thanks in part to a Moustakas error that put runners on first and second with no outs. An Oscar Taveras sacrifice fly made it 6-5, and Jhonny Peralta tied things with a two- out, run-scoring single.

Bourjos, who was part of a double-switch in the top half, took Shields over the left-field wall to lead off the sixth, but again Kansas City responded.

With two outs and runners on first and second in the eighth, Escobar flared a bloop base hit into short center off Pat Neshek to knock in Salvador Perez.