Miami ? Alcides Escobar is the latest player to make an impact at the plate for the Kansas City Royals.

Escobar homered, doubled, and drove in two runs to lead the surging Royals past the Miami Marlins, 5-2, on Thursday night.

“Esky had a great game,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Just had a great game. Defensively, offensively, the home run was big to give us a two-run lead at that point.”

Escobar is hitting .388 (19 for 49) with four doubles, a triple, and a home run in his last 13 games.

Salvador Perez and Kendrys Morales also drove in runs for the Royals as the defending World Series champions have won 15 of 18 to pull within four games of the second AL wild card spot.

“We’ve been playing great baseball as of late, but we definitely know we’re a long way from where we want to be,” Royals right fielder Lorenzo Cain said. “We have to continue hopefully winning series — that’s our main goal.”

Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez (10-10) pitched five innings and allowed two runs, both unearned, and three hits.

The Royals’ bullpen, which has been a successful formula for the reigning two-time AL pennant winners, pitched four scoreless innings to push their franchise-record scoreless streak to 38 2/3 innings — the best in the majors since 2002-03 when San Francisco tossed 39 1/3 straight.

“They’ve just been spectacular,” Yost said.

Kelvin Herrera pitched a flawless ninth for his ninth save in 11 chances.

Tom Koehler (9-9) allowed four runs, three earned, and seven hits in six innings for the Marlins.

“It was an interesting game,” Koehler said. “You’ve got to give them credit. They capitalized on our mistakes we made tonight.”

Kansas City went 4 for 28 with runners in scoring position and scored six runs during the three-game series, but left Miami with two victories.

“We don’t care what we do as long as we win,” Yost said. “As long as we score more runs than they do and it’s a combination of pitching, great defense, and timely hitting and that’s been our recipe for a while now.”

The Marlins also struggled hitting with runners in scoring position during the series going 3 for 26 and leaving 24 men on base including 11 on Thursday.

“We had a few chances, we didn’t have a ton, but we had a few chances but weren’t able to scratch,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.

The Royals opened the scoring in the third on an RBI double by Perez after the Marlins elected to intentionally walk Eric Hosmer with first base open. Cheslor Cuthbert scored on Perez’s ground ball down the left-field line.

Escobar extended the Royals’ lead to 2-0 on a home run to center field in the fourth. It was his third of the season and second of the month.

“I was looking for a fastball on that pitch,” Escobar said. “(Koehler) threw me a first-pitch cutter and the next pitch was a fastball and I swung the bat and hit the ball really good.”

Third baseman Cuthbert had two doubles to go with two errors, one of which led to the Marlins’ two runs coming in the fourth to tie the game at 2.

Escobar’s tiebreaking RBI double off Koehler in the sixth gave the Royals the lead. Morales’ pinch-hit sacrifice fly put the Royals on top 4-2.

The Marlins threatened in the sixth loading the bases with two outs, but lefty Matt Strahm entered the game and got Dee Gordon to ground out to escape the jam.

“The bullpen was phenomenal and Strahm probably gets the gold star,” Yost said.

The Royals pushed their lead to 5-2 in the ninth as Raul Mondesi walked, stole two bases, and scored on catcher J.T. Realmuto’s throwing error trying to get Mondesi at third on his stolen base attempt.

“A club like that over there that’s got guys that can hit balls out of the ballpark, a three-run lead is much better than a two-run lead,” Yost said.

Both teams combined for six errors.