Salvador Perez hit a home run to start the fourth inning, kicking off a four-run rally against Carlos Rodón, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night. This win evened their AL Division Series at one game each.
After Cole Ragans had a shaky start lasting four innings, four relievers kept the Yankees from scoring. Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson, and Maikel Garcia each had singles that drove in runs for the Royals.
Garcia, who was moved from ninth to first in the batting order, had four hits in the game.
Game 3 of the best-of-five playoff series will take place Wednesday night in Kansas City, marking the Royals’ first postseason home game since the 2015 World Series.
“It’s basically like a brand-new series when we get to the K,” Ragans said, referring to Kauffman Stadium.
Yankees star Aaron Judge went 1 for 3 with an infield single, bringing his series total to 1 for 7 with four strikeouts. Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr., who is expected to finish second to Judge in AL MVP voting, went 0 for 5, bringing his series total to 0 for 10.
This is the first time since the round started in 1995 that all four Division Series are tied 1-1.
Giancarlo Stanton put the Yankees in the lead with an RBI single in the third inning, but New York struggled with runners in scoring position, going 1 for 6 and 3 for 19 across both games.
“They were making their pitches when they needed to,” Judge said. “We’ve got to come through in those situations to kind of break it open.”
Ragans allowed just one run and three hits while striking out five and walking four. Winning pitcher Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber each pitched a hitless inning, and Kris Bubic threw two scoreless innings. Lucas Erceg closed the game for his third save of the postseason.
Erceg gave up a leadoff homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a two-out single to Jon Berti but managed to retire Gleyber Torres on a grounder to end the game, with slugger Juan Soto waiting on deck. Chisholm’s homer was the first hit off Erceg since June 12, when he was still with Oakland.
