Kansas City, Mo. ? Whenever a Royals pitcher has issued a walk lately, the runner has usually scored. So when Ned Yost’s own guys worked a pair of walks against the Yankees on Saturday night in the sixth inning of a tied game, the often-dour manager had an optimistic thought.

“Let’s turn it around this time,” Yost said.

Salvador Perez did just that.

The big catcher belted a three-run homer into the bullpen in left field, and Eric Hosmer added a solo shot later in the game, sending Kansas City to an 8-4 victory over New York.

“I’ve said all along, I thought we have home-run power,” said Yost, whose team has hit just 26 homers — by far the fewest in the majors. “It’ll manifest itself in time.”

Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki drove in a run apiece as the Royals bounced back from an offensively inept performance in a 4-2 series-opening loss Friday night.

Aaron Crow (3-1) retired one batter in the sixth in relief of starter Danny Duffy, and breezed through the seventh to earn the victory. Kelvin Herrera and Michael Mariot finished it off.

David Phelps (1-4) allowed seven runs on 10 hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings.

“Frustrating is the PG-rated word for it,” he said. “I was pitching decent going into later parts of games, but it’s tough to win ballgames when you give up four runs in the sixth and seventh inning. It’s frustrating.”

Yangervis Solarte drove in a pair of runs for New York, and Carlos Beltran — who’s been bothered by an ailing elbow and is still relegated to designated hitter duty — had an RBI with his first hit since coming off the disabled list Thursday.

“It’s like starting over for me,” Beltran said. “One day, two days is not going to do it, any difference. Basically you have to play every day and with playing time that will come. I cannot tell you (when). I wish I could know.”