TORONTO -- Even with Troy Tulowitzki getting an afternoon off full-time duty, the Toronto Blue Jays smacked baseballs around Rogers Centre on Saturday with their usual power.

Then the Kansas City Royals showed they could mash, too.

Trade-deadline pickup Mark Lowe allowed three runs in one inning of relief as the Blue Jays' winning streak ended at three with a 7-6 loss to the American League-leading Royals. It was another back-and-forth game between teams that would love to do this all again in October.

"I'd hope it'd get to that point," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "It's way too early for that. But (the Royals have) the top team in the American League right now. They have good pitching, they got a great bullpen, they have probably the most team speed in the league, they got the best defence in the league. So they're really good at winning one-run games."

The winning run came on a sacrifice fly in the eighth, but an error on Mark Buehrle also gave the Royals one and opened the door for two others in the sixth inning. Those are the kinds of mistakes Buehrle knows he can't make, especially against Kansas City.

"It's frustrating because I take pride in fielding my position and when a ground ball comes back to me like that and you can't make that play, it's kind of embarrassing," the left-hander said. "It made it a totally different game."

The Blue Jays still held a one-run lead until Lowe entered in the eighth. Acquired Friday from the Seattle Mariners for three left-handed minor-league pitchers, he proceeded to give up three on four hits to get the loss in his debut. He had allowed just four earned runs in 36-plus innings before Saturday.

Gibbons said one appearance won't make or break Lowe's career in Toronto. But it's certainly not a favourable one, especially after giving up a home run to Royals deadline acquisition Ben Zobrist, his second of the game.

Lowe said it was a bad pitch to Zobrist as part of a rough inning that went totally against his remarkable success this season.

"I wasn't ahead of guys as well as I normally was," the 32-year-old reliever said. "I was yanking my fastball in on a lefty a little bit. Just wasn't getting ahead."

Toronto's Jose Bautista homered twice for Nos. 22 and 23 of the season, and third baseman Josh Donaldson hit a two-run shot off Royals starter Yordano Ventura. Bautista's second home run was the first Royals reliever Wade Davis had given up in more than 125 innings, dating to August 2013.

"I paused a little bit in my delivery to try and mess up his timing and he kind of reset pretty good," Davis said. "I'm happy it happened. I get it out of the way so we can move forward and not have to worry about that."

Edwin Encarnacion almost made it two in a row against Davis with a shot that got to the warning track.

"These guys are hotter than heck, and their power is amazing," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. "Their power is ridiculous."

But for all the Blue Jays' pop, the Royals had plenty to match. Zobrist homered from each side of the plate, and first baseman Eric Hosmer went 2-for-4, driving in three runs.

Zobrist became the first Royal to hit a home run left- and right-handed since Wilson Betemit in 2010.

"It feels incredible," said Zobrist, acquired from the Oakland Athletics earlier in the week. "You try and put good swings on the ball from both sides of the plate when you have to switch around during the game but it's tough a lot of times."

Notes -- Tulowitzki pinch-hit for Munenori Kawasaki in the ninth inning, drawing a walk. ... To make room for Kawasaki, Lowe and Revere, the Blue Jays designated infielder/outfielder Danny Valencia and outfielder Ezequiel Carrera and optioned right-handed reliever Ryan Tepera to triple-A Buffalo.