Royals lose seesaw affair, 6-5

Neither team’s best MVP candidate could come up with a hit in this one

From the first inning it was obvious that neither team was going to be content to have one of the low-scoring affairs that the Royals won in Baltimore.

The Royals swung at three pitches in the first inning, all were hit over 100 MPH, all were outs. The Yankees, meanwhile, put runners at second and third in the bottom half of the inning but failed to score. The first inning ended scoreless, but both teams were ready to provide some offense.

The Royals broke through first. Salvador Perez led off with a single in the second against Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole. Yuli Gurriel took a walk. MJ Melendez smashed a single into right field and, inexplicably, Trevor Vance sent Salvador Perez home. He was out by a good bit. Fortunately, Gurriel advanced to third on some head’s up baserunning and scored on the first ball in play from a Royals hitter that didn’t top 100 MPH - a 99.9 MPH flyball off the bat of Tommy Pham.

In the bottom of the third, the Yankees answered with a Yankees stadium special, a home run 369 feet off the bat of Gleyber Torres after Alex Verdugo had reached via flare into left against Royals’ starter Michael Wacha. In the top of the fourth, the Royals responded in kind. Gurriel took another walk and this time Melendez got under it enough to get his own Yankees special.

The Yankees came roaring back in the bottom of the fifth. Gleyber Torres collected his second walk of the night - Wacha’s third of the night - we’ll come back to that - and that was enough for manager Matt Quatraro with tomorrow as an off-day in the schedule. In came Angel Zerpa to try and escape the jam.

Zerpa has looked a lot better since his return from the minors, but you wouldn’t have known it tonight. He allowed a single to Juan Soto, then walked Aaron Judge to load the bases. He then walked Austin Wells - we’ll come back to that in a moment - to bring in the tying run. John Schreiber got the call. He got Giancarlo Stanton to pop out weakly and then convinced Jazz Chisholm Jr. to hit a grounder to Yuli Gurriel at first. For the second time in the game, Gurriel cut down a runner at the plate. You began to think Schreiber could get out of it. Then he walked Volpe to give the Yankees the lead.

But the Royals weren’t done!

Gurriel slapped a single a few feet short of a home run in left field. The Yankees called upon lefty specialist and former Royal Tim Hill to get MJ Melendez. Q decided to let Melendez bat and he, predictably, flew out. Tommy Pham came to the plate and smacked what seemed like a double play groundball to Volpe but Volpe fired it into right field. Instead of ending the inning, the Royals had runners at second and third with one out. Kyle Isbel was due next, but with Hill forced to face one more batter, Q finally went to his bench for a pinch hitter. Much to everyone’s dismay, he selected Garrett Hampson for the job. Naturally, Hampson, drawing comparisons to Marquez Valdez-Scantling, slapped a single through the drawn-in infield to give the Royals the lead back.

This time the lead couldn’t even last through the bottom of the inning. Sam Long came in to pitch and immediately walked number nine hitter Alex Verdugo - the Royals’ sixth walk of the night. He struck out Torres, but gave up a single to Soto. In came Michael Lorenzen, who struck out Judge. Unfortunately, he hung a changeup that Wells smacked into right field to tie the game.

For the first time all night, the Royals didn’t immediately respond to a Yankees score. In the bottom of the seventh, Lorenzen gave up a lead-off single to Chisholm. On a full-count pitch to Volpe, Chisholm got one of the worst breaks I’ve ever seen for a stolen base. He danced back toward first before spinning his wheels and then getting going. Volpe struck out swinging but Salvy’s throw to second was very high. Still, Massey made a great attempt to tag out Chisholm and while the runner was ruled safe on the field the Royals challenged it and video replay appeared to show he was out. The umpires - in the New York challenge center - decided they couldn’t be sure and ruled that the call stood. Oswaldo Cabrera struck out, but Alex Verdugo came through again with a single to drive home the winning run for the Yankees.

Q then called upon Lucas Erceg to keep things from getting worse but it was too little, too late. The Royals’ offense remained quiet for the remainder of the evening.

Alright, so let’s talk about the umpires. It’s true that, had they called the strike zone correctly, both Torres and Wells would have struck out instead of walking in the fifth inning, It’s also true that Chisholm appeared to be out. But the Royals could have avoided all of those issues by simply throwing more strikes and by Salvy making a better throw to second. I tend to lean in the direction that when a game is played that tight, the umpires need to make sure they get the calls right so as not to unduly influence the game, but it’s at least equally reasonable to argue that the game didn’t have to be played that tight in the first place.

This game will serve as something of a Rorschach test for Royals fans. If you’re a glass-half-empty kind of person, you’ll see this as a missed opportunity to win a game against the Yankees when their ace was off and Aaron Judge went 0-for-4. If you’re a glass-half-full kind of person, you’ll see that Cole no longer should intimidate Royals batters should a game four become necessary and that they managed to score five runs despite Bobby Witt Jr. failing to reach base even once in five plate appearances - something that only happened four times all season. Yankees fans certainly don’t feel confident about their non-Cole starters.

Regardless, the Royals have tomorrow off. They’ll meet again Monday night at 6:38 central time. Cole Ragans will take the mound against Carlos Rodón. If the Royals can win that game, they’ll flip the series to a best-of-three where they have home field advantage. If they lose it, they will risk having their first playoff game at Kauffman this year also be their last.