Alcides Escobar’s three-run blast is the big blow in Royals’ 8-5 win over Yankees

The power bat of Alcides Escobar is the latest example of the Royals’ recent fortunes.

Through the season’s first four months, Escobar had one home run. A bit below his average, but not by much for a player who until August had recorded 25 home runs in a major-league career that started nine years ago.

But the Royals are soaring these days, and so is Escobar’s power. His three-run homer in the seventh inning Monday night paved the way for the Royals’ 8-5 victory over the New York Yankees.

The blast turned a two-run Kansas City lead into a 6-1 advantage. The Royals still had work to do after the bullpen coughed up four runs in the eighth, but Kelvin Herrera’s four-out save assured the Royals’ 18th victory in their last 22 games and made them 20-7 in August.

The Royals started the night 5  1/2 games behind the American League Central-leading Cleveland Indians, a deficit that remained intact after Cleveland’s 1-0 victory Monday over the Minnesota Twins. But the Royals picked up a game in the chase for the second wild-card spot and now stand two games back.

Escobar’s home run — his third of the month — was the biggest blow, and he’s not surprised by the surge.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play in that situation, and I hit the ball good,” Escboar said. “I knew 100 percent it was gone.”

The most notable home run in Escobar’s career occurred in the first game of the 2015 World Series, an inside-the-park shot on the first pitch thrown to a Royals batter. But the shortstop trusts his ability to go deep.

“When I hit the ball good, when I catch the ball out front, it can go out,” Escobar said.

Before Escobar went deep, the game’s drama was provided by starting pitchers Dillon Gee and Michael Pineda. Gee started strong and left with a 3-1 lead after six innings. Pineda began the seventh inning having retired the previous 15 Royals hitters.

But Pineda had trouble at the start of the game, when the Royals scored three runs in the first. Jarrod Dyson led off by beating out a squibber that rolled past Pineda.

Speed played a role early in the inning. Dyson took second on a wild pitch then stole third, his 21st stolen base of the season.

Lorenzo Cain roped a single to center to score Dyson, and Cain stole second. He came home when designated hitter Kendrys Morales, batting left-handed, singled through left side.

Salvador Perez kept the hit parade alive with a single, and Alex Gordon delivered the fifth single of the inning, through the right side, to score Morales.

The Royals, who turned in an eight-run inning in a 10-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox the previous night, now had another big inning. Pinada settled down and kept it close until the seventh.

Morales opened the inning with a sharp single, and Perez followed with a base hit. Yankees manager Joe Girardi started a succession of pitching changes, and Tommy Layne got a fielder’s-choice grounder from Gordon.

Enter Blake Parker to face Escobar, who fell behind 1-2. But Escobar turned on an off-speed pitch and sent it in the stands just beyond the left-center-field wall.

The Royals weren’t finished. Cheslor Cuthbert and Eric Hosmer picked up RBI singles in to push the margin into what seemed to be a comfort zone until the Yankees did their damage against Chris Young, an inning that started when Jacoby Ellsbury reached on catcher’s interference against Drew Butera.

Instead of breezing home to a lopsided victory, the Royals found themselves using Herrera with two outs in the eighth, when set-up man Peter Moylan couldn’t record a third out. Herrera did, retiring pinch hitter Mark Teixeira on a ground out.

Herrera returned to pitch the ninth, working around a pair of singles for his 11th save.

“The situation was perfect for him,” Royals manager Ned Yost said after the game. “He had a couple of days off. We thought it was our best chance of winning the game.”

Gee surrendered four hits over six innings, leaving the game with a 3-1 lead. He had been something of a tough-luck pitcher for the Royals with one victory in his previous seven starts dating to July.

“I felt like I’ve been throwing the ball well, just not getting the results,” Gee said. “It’s starting to catch up a little bit.”

Gee started strong, retiring the first eight hitters and had surrendered one hit through three innings. The Yankees struck for a run in the fourth on consecutive doubles by Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro, and threatened with a pair of base runners in the fifth.

But Gee coaxed a fly to center from Aaron Hicks and when he set down the heart of the order in the sixth — Gary Sanchez, Gregorius and Castro — he had regained steam of his early innings.

Brian Flynn took over for Gee to start the seventh, surrendered a leadoff single to Brian McCann before retiring the side. Flynn hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last eight appearances.

It took Herrera to finish off the Yankees, and if a four-out save isn’t ideal, Yost said he was doing everything he can to keep the Royals moving in the right direction.

“Every game is important from here on out,” Yost said.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Alcides Escobar’s three-run blast is the big blow in Royals’ 8-5 win over Yankees."