With a lead in hand, the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff allowed the New York Yankees to grab a playoff win.
The Royals, facing a team known for leading the majors in walks during the regular season, took the lead three times but lost it as their pitchers struggled to find the strike zone in a 6-5 defeat to the Yankees in the AL Division Series opener on Saturday night.
Kansas City tied its season high by giving up eight walks for the third time. This was the first time they had issued that many walks since July 4 against Tampa Bay, although they also allowed seven walks in a 10-4 loss at Yankee Stadium on September 9.
“That’s really uncharacteristic for us,” Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said. “It’s something you don’t want to try to fight back from against a team like that. So that was uncharacteristic and unfortunate because that’s not really who we are as a staff.”
Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber particularly struggled with their control, walking Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, which allowed the Yankees to take a 5-4 lead.
Zerpa also walked Aaron Judge on a slider before walking Wells on a sinker that was high and inside.
“They looked at a lot of pitches,” Zerpa said through a translator. “We were close, but not good enough pitches to make them count.” Schreiber quickly got two outs but fell behind Volpe, walking the shortstop on a sinker that was outside.
“They’re a great team,” Schreiber said. “We’ve just got to go out there and keep trying to execute pitches and get them out, and that’s the biggest thing.”
This was the first time the Yankees received two bases-loaded walks in a postseason game since Bullet Joe Bush and Joe Dugan did it against the New York Giants’ Rosy Ryan in Game 6 of the 1923 World Series.
