If there are things to be remembered about this loss — it is that the Yankees made 4 (four) errors to aid Kansas City in the 8-4 win, and Yank starter Nestor Cortes Jr.entertained with one of the best leg kicks in modern baseball history. Also that new Yankee 6’8 super stud Stephen Ridings finally showed that he is not unhittable.
The 8-4 loss on a Tuesday night in Kansas City dropped the 62-51 Yanks to 7 games back of 1st place Tampa, who beat Boston. NY remains .5 ahead of Toronto, which didn’t play.
1. Cortes and the Leg Kick
Nestor Cortes Jr.wasn’t as sharp as he has been but mostly kept the Yankees in the game. In fact, NY had a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 4th when Nestor rolled out his leg kick.
#Yankees @Cortes_1210 Nestor Cortes cracks me up! 3-2 Yankees in the ⬇️4️⃣ pic.twitter.com/K7733W19LF
— David Alan (@dpas79) August 11, 2021
NY had a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 6th when Royals catcher Salvador Perez hit a homer to left off Cortes to tie the game 4-4.
Cortes struck out the next two batters in that 6th, but allowed a single to 3rd baseman Emmanuel Rivera and was gone after 80 pitches.
2. Ridings Failed for 1st Time
Big 6’8 Stephen Ridings came in and for the first time in his brief time with the Yanks — was hit. Right fielder Hunter Dozier ripped a double to deep right that scored Rivera to put KC up 5-4, although Dozier himself was thrown out at 3rd trying to stretch the hit into a triple — Yankee centerfielder Jonathan Davis making the strong throw in.
In the 7th, Michael Taylor led off with a double off Ridings, and when Hanser Alberto bunted back to the pitcher, Ridings threw it away for an error — the run scored and KC was up 6-4.
3. Error Error Error
The Ridings error was the 3rd error of the evening for the Yanks and they’d make a 4th before the night was out.
Earlier, Kyle Higashioka — who only had 4 errors in his Major League career coming into the evening — had made 2 throwing errors. In the 5th, Whit Merrifield hit a 2-out double off Cortes, then stole 3rd and Higgy threw the ball into left trying to throw him out. Higgy also made a throwing error in the 2nd, trying to catch Michael Taylor stealing 2nd — throwing the ball into center.
“It’s definitely pretty infuriating,” Higgy said after the game. “Obviously, I hate to make errors like that, especially since one directly led to a run. It’s just not acceptable.”
Higgy made up for it with a 2-run homer in the 4th that put the Yankees up at the time, 3-2.
Higgy homer 💪 pic.twitter.com/Xi7n6Rd8UQ
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 11, 2021
Yankee Offense
The Yankees only got 5 hits — one each by Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu (RBI single), Giancarlo Stanton, Higgy (the homer) and new Yankee shortstop (while Gleyber Torres is out) Andrew Velazquez.
Velazquez grew up a Yankee fan in the Bronx. He ripped a double to deep center in the 3rd, moved to 3rd base on a lineout by LeMahieu and scored on a wild pitch by Royals starter Daniel Lynch. Velazquez showed blinding speed on it all.
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