KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- No one will ever accuse Cheslor Cuthbert, Alcides Escobar and Ramon Torres of being Murderer's Row, but for one night they did plenty of damage.

Cuthbert and Escobar combined to drive in five runs as the Kansas City Royals held off the Houston Astros 7-5 on Wednesday night.

Cuthbert, Escobar, Torres and Salvador Perez had two hits apiece for Kansas City.

"Seven runs on two outs," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "What's impressive was the bottom of our order had been struggling so much and six RBIs from the bottom of the order with Esky, Cuthbert and Torres coming up and making a nice major league debut."

The three went 6-for-12.

"I was looking for a good pitch, and he (left) a couple of pitches up," Cuthbert said.

The Astros scored three runs (two unearned) in the eighth inning to cut into the Royals' five-run advantage.

Kansas City left-hander Scott Alexander, who was just activated off the disabled list, gave up three hits and one run while retiring only two batters in the eighth.

Escobar committed an error with the bases loaded to allow two unearned runs to score.

Kelvin Herrera worked around Brian McCann's single in the ninth to pick up his 13th save. McCann had four of the Astros' 11 hits, including a home run.

With Dallas Keuchel a game-time scratch, the Astros replaced him with Dayan Diaz, who was just called up from the minors. The Astros announced Keuchel, who is 9-0 with a major-league-best 1.67 ERA, had an illness after he went out to warm up.

"It's tough," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of guys filling in for Keuchel at the last moment. "Guys did the best they could. Diaz just got here. He hadn't pitched in a few days. We were fortunate to have him. He went as long as he could.

"It started with an already-taxed bullpen. We pieced it together. To even have the tying run up to bat in the eighth, and again in the ninth, was a pretty good testament to our 'pen doing what they could. A couple of guys pitching when they arguably shouldn't have, and our offense hanging in there to make it a game."

The Royals got two runs in the second inning. Perez singled and scored from first on Cuthbert's double to left. Escobar added an RBI single.

Lorenzo Cain homered to straightaway center in the third to finish Diaz's first big league start. Diaz allowed three runs and four hits and struck out three in 2 2/3 innings.

Left-hander Tony Sipp relieved Diaz and yielded two runs in the fourth. Perez led off the inning with a double and scored on Escobar's two-out single. Torres doubled down the right-field line to score Escobar. It was Torres' first big league hit and RBI in his second at-bat.

The Royals pushed their lead to 7-2 in the fifth with Cuthbert's two-out, opposite-field single, scoring Jorge Bonifacio and Cain.

Royals starter Jason Vargas (8-3) was removed after 89 pitches and five innings. He allowed two runs and six hits, including McCann's home run in the second.

"I thought he scrapped," Yost said. "His command was off, but he finds ways to grind through it. He did today. That's a mark of a good pitcher: When you don't have your best stuff, you can still grind your way through it. And that's exactly what Vargy did."

Vargas walked one, hit a batter and struck out five. His ERA went from 2.08 to 2.18.

"That's definitely a compliment," Vargas said when told of Yost's comment.

McCann's fourth-inning single scored Carlos Beltran with the other Astros run off Vargas.

"I knew it was going to be a bullpen game," McCann said. "Guys made their pitches. I feel like I didn't do a good job tonight of calling the game. I felt like I could have gone a couple of different directions, and I should have. I'm going to be thinking of some pitches that I called tonight."

Perez was replaced by Drew Butera in the ninth after injuring his left thumb.

"Alexander was throwing a tremendous sinker and when he struck out Beltran (in the eighth), the ball kind of caught him on the thumb a little bit and bent his thumb," Yost said. "He's day-to-day. We'll see how he feels tomorrow."

NOTES: The Royals promoted INF Ramon Torres, who was hitting .327 with Triple-A Omaha, and started him at second base in his big league debut. They also activated LHP Scott Alexander from the disabled list after he recovered from a right hamstring strain. ... The Royals optioned RHP Kevin McCarthy and OF Billy Burns to the Storm Chasers. ... The Astros recalled RHP Dayan Diaz from Triple-A Fresno and optioned LHP Reymin Guduan to the Pacific Coast League affiliate. ... Astros RHP Lance McCullers and Royals RHP Jason Hammel are the Thursday probables for the finale of a four-game series.