Rodon Hits Turbulence in 4th. Yank Offense Stifled. KC 4 NY 2

Jazz Chisholm Jr hits a solo HR leading off the 9th to make it a 4-2 game.

Carlos Rodon was lights out for the first 3 innings but hit turbulence in the 4th, allowing a homer to Salvador Perez and a bunch of singles for 4 runs — and that is all the Royals needed to beat the Yankees 4-2 on a Monday night at Yankee Stadium, with playoff electricity in the air and temps in the 60’s.

It evened up the best-of-5 series at 1 game apiece.

NY worked long at bats against Royals’ starter Cole Ragans, and knocked him out after 4 innings and 87 pitches — but were unable to really break through against him or the Royal pen. Down 4-1 in the 9th, Jazz Chisholm Jr.hit a homer to make it 4-2, and Jon Berti singled with 2 outs to bring the tying run to the plate, but Gleyber Torres grounded out.

“We took a lot of tough at bats again, kind of in line with last game,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Ragans is really tough; we knocked him out of there after 4 just because we were patient and had quality at bats. We just couldn’t punch through tonite — really break something open or put something in the seats where we put a crooked number up there. But they have a lot to do with that too, with some of the pitchers they run at you. Tonite was close but not good enough.”

1. Yanks Pressure Ragans; Take 1-0 Lead

The Yanks pressured Ragans from the start — Gleyber Torres and Juan Soto working walks to lead off the game. But Ragans struck out Aaron Judge and Austin Wells and got Giancarlo Stanton to ground out to end the 1st inning.

Judge Just Missed

Ragans worked around a 2-out single by Anthony Volpe in the 2nd, but NY got to him in the 3rd.

Gleyber led off with a walk, Juan Soto struck out, and Aaron Judge hit a SHOT to opposite field right that looked like a homer off the bat — but it was caught a foot from the wall.

Austin Wells followed with a single, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a SHOT past Bobby Witt Jr.at shortstop for a run and 1-0 Yankee lead.

2. Rodon Lights Out Until 4th

Meanwhile, Carlos Rodon came out SMOKING — striking out the side in the 1st inning and retiring the first 5 batters of the game until yielding a 2-out single in the 2nd.

Rodon allowed consecutive singles to leadoff the 3rd, including a comebacker that hit off him for an infield single — but got a groundout, and then a lineout right at Juan Soto in right to end the inning. PHEW.

The lineout was a taste of bad things to come. Given a 1-0 lead to start the 4th, Rodon ran into turbulence. Salvador Perez hit a 2-0 slider 402 feet to left for a homer and a 1-1 tie.

Yuli Gurriel then worked a 7-pitch at bat before singling to left. Rodon went 3-0 on  Michael Massey but came back to strike him out — then went 1-2 on Tommy Pham before Pham laced a single to right center, scoring Gurriel (who had made it to 2nd on a wild pitch) to make it KC 2 NY 1.

Rodon struck out Hunter Renfroe, and went 3-2 to Garrett Hampson — a strike from getting out of the inning — but Hampson singled to left, scoring Pham and it was KC 3 NY 1.

Ian Hamilton came in and allowed an RBI single to Maikel Garcia to make it 4-1 — although Garcia was thrown out at 2nd to end the inning. Damage done.

“His stuff was excellent, obviously, tonite,” said Boone. “And then Salvy leading off the inning was the 1st guy he got behind; I thought he was pounding the strike zone with really good stuff all night — he falls behind him and from there started making some mistakes especially with his secondary, just in the heart of the plate. Looked like Salvy jumped him, Gurial 2-strike hit; he was able to get Massey and gets ahead of Pham but hung a breaking ball to him that he shot to right center; gets Renfro but can’t put away Hampson. Just a tough inning where his command got away from him, especially with the secondary. Because stuff wise he was excellent tonite but then all of a sudden a little scattered there.”

3. Yank Pen Tremendous

The Yankee pen pitched shutout ball the rest of the way.

  • Ian Hamilton struck out the side with a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th.

  • Jake Cousins made his first appearance in several weeks, and faced 3 batters in the 6th. He allowed a leadoff baserunner due to an error by Chisholm at 3rd, then walked a batter before getting Tommy Pham to fly out. Tim Hill came in and got a double play to end the inning.
  • Clay Holmes pitched a shutout 7th — helped by Austin Wells throwing out Isbel trying to steal 2nd, and striking out the last 2 batters.
  • Tommy Kahnle pitched a shutout 8th — with 2 strikeouts sandwiching a walk and a flyout.
  • Tim Mayza got the first 2 outs of the 9th, before yielding a single and being relieved by Luke Weaver who got the final out.

4. KC Pen Shuts Down NY

But KC’s bullpen was equally effective:

Angel Zerpa pitched the 5th — Aaron Judge worked a 1-out walk but was erased by Austin Wells hitting into an inning-ending doubleplay.

John Schreiber pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th — fly out, line out, line out.

Kris Bubic pitched a shutout 7th and 8th. He allowed a leadoff single to Alex Verdugo in the 7th, but then got line out, strike out, and fly out (by Juan Soto).

Aaron Judge led off the 8th with an infield single, but Austin Wells struck out and Giancarlo Stanton hit into an inning-ending double play.

5. Chisholm HR in 9th

Jazz Chisholm led off the 9th against reliever Lucas Erceg with a homer to right for a 4-2 game.

Erceg got 2 groundouts, but Jon Berti gave the Yanks one last hope with a single to right, bringing up the tying run in Gleyber Torres. But Gleyber grounded out to shortstop on the 1st pitch for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401701043

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