The power stroke of Alcides Escobar is yet the latest example of recent Royals fortune.
Escobar broke open Monday’s series opener with a three-run homer to left center in the seventh inning, paving the way for a 8-5 victory over the Yankees.
It was Escobar’s third home run of August. He had hit one on the season until then and has 28 in his major-league career that started nine years ago.
“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 blast turned a pitcher’s duel among the starters into another triumph for the Royals, their 20th in August and 18th in the past 22 games.
The torrid pace has allowed the Royals to climb into postseason contention. They entered the day three games behind in the second wild card position and 5 { games behind the Central Division-leading Indians, a deficit that remained intact after Cleveland’s victory on Monday. 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 arrived at the seventh inning having retired the previous 15 Royals hitters. But Pineda had trouble at the start as the Royals scored three runs in the first. Jarrod Dyson led off the Royals’ first 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 swipe off the season. Lorenzo Cain roped a single to center to score Dyson and Cain stole second. He came home when 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 victory over the 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 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 plated four in the eighth inning with most of the damage logged against Chris Young. Instead of breezing home to a lopsided victory, the Royals found themselves using closer Kelvin Herrera with two outs in the eighth when Peter Moylan couldn’t record a third out.
Herrera did, retiring pinch hitter Mark Teixeira on a ground out. 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 to show for his previous seven starts dating to July.
He 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 Sanches, 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.

RESULTS
Toronto 5 Baltimore 1
Washington 4 Philadelphia 0
Detroit 4 Chicago White Sox 3
NY Mets 2 Miami 1 (10 innings)
Cleveland 1 Minnesota 0
(10 innings)
Boston 9 Tampa Bay 4
St. Louis 6 Milwaukee 5
Chicago Cubs 8 Pittsburgh 7
(13 innings)
Texas 6 Seattle 3
Houston 6 Oakland 0
Kansas City 8 NY Yankees 5
Colorado 8 LA Dodgers 1
LA Angels 9 Cincinnati 2