Final Score: NYY 3 | KC 2

ALDS is Now: NYY Lead 2-1 

Winning/Losing Pitcher

• W: Tommy Kahnle
• L: Kris Bubic
• S: Luke Weaver 

Key Highlights

Walks. Walks. Walks. The Royals struggled again tonight with putting runners on, as Royals pitching ended up walking nine batters in route to a 3-2 loss to the Yankees. This is now the second time this ALDS that the Royals have had issues there. Allowing eight walks in game one was brutal enough, and thankfully they kept close. Similarly in this one, they kept it close but came up short. The evening started like many Royals games have this year, with great starting pitching. Seth Lugo came to play, and was solid on the mound in this one. He only ended up giving up two runs and got out of the biggest jam of the night. He gave up a walk to Juan Soto, and eventually ended up scoring on Giancarlo Stanton’s double in the fourth. It looked like Lugo was going to keep on going, but after he had some trouble in the fifth, he ended up getting pulled after only five innings of work. 

The Royals offense continued to struggle here as well, just not being able to come through in the big moments. Not that they had a bunch of opportunities, but in key situations they still weren’t able to come through. Clarke Schmidt was able to keep the Royals in check through the first four and took a 2-0 Yankees lead into the bottom of the fifth. And it seemed like Schmidt was going to keep putting the Royals offense down, getting the first two batters out in the fifth with Adam Frazier coming up. Frazier ends up getting on with a weak infield single and this is when the chaos ensues. Kyle Isbel has a hell of an at-bat and ends it with a well hit ball to the opposite field that looked like it was going to go foul. But it didn’t! It stayed straight up the line and bounced in the corner. 

Scoring Frazier from first and continuing the Royals rally. Now the score is 2-1 with Michael Massey looking to come through. He hits a line drive to right field and it gets by a diving Juan Soto! It rolls all the way to the wall, Massey gets to third, and the Royals have tied it with their best player coming up. 

Bobby Witt Jr. ends up walking, but Vinnie Pasquantino puts an end to it with a flyout to center. But the score is tied as we continue down the stretch.

Royals pitching then gets into a groove and has back to back clean innings thanks to Angel Zerpa, John Schrieber, Sam Long, and Brady Singer. The Royals offense can’t get anything going against the Yankees bullpen, and we get to the top of the eighth. Where we unfortunately have to face Giancarlo Stanton again. He hits a go ahead solo shot off Kris Bubic to give the Yankees the lead and eventually is the game winning run. 

It’s really a banner night for Stanton, who collects three of the team’s four hits and they still get the W. Who says that one player can’t take over a baseball game. An absolutely furious ending for Kansas City, who have been in the thick of these three games and continue to come up short. I mean that is a way the Royals lose man, three out of four hits total come from one guy and you still somehow lose? Someone didn’t tell me that 2008 losses were possible in playoff games. Line this up next to one of those, I bet that nine walks and this exact situation happened at least once. Someone help me with that info. 

The Royals had some semblance of comeback in the eighth with a couple singles from BWJ and Salvador Perez, but a Yuli Gurriel flyout ended all hopes of that turning into runs. The ninth wasn’t even competitive going down one, two, three. Another frustrating aspect from this one is Luke Weaver just coming in and completing a 5-out save no problem. I feel like you have to make him work harder for that, and take advantage of a pitcher potentially getting overused. But Weaver got out of it, and now looks elite since leaving KC. 

We have now made it a MUST WIN game four in KC so we can have the right to go back to New York for a game five. Not really what you wanted after all the energy from Kauffman in game one, but let’s just hope we can keep the season going. I hope that the energy keeps us rocking and rolling to New York and beyond. 

Summary of the Next Game

It’s win or go home on Thursday for the Royals in game four of the ALDS against the Yankees. It will be a rematch of game one, as the Royals will send out Michael Wacha and the Yankees Gerrit Cole. This is what you pay Michael Wacha for, to keep you in these games and get it to a game five with your ace on the hill. You can have some optimism as a Royals fan, as they really did get to Gerrit Cole in game one. It’s good that you got a look at him first to be prepared for this one, and now you will have your home crowd a part of it as well. It just feels like the Yankees are begging to get beat and you have to take advantage of that. These guys had four hits all night on Wednesday and three came from one guy. If you can clean up the walks and limit the damage you can stay in this one. You just have to win on Thursday. Wacha will look to continue this Royals season that has been so electric, and if they can get the offense going we will see the story continue to unfold. It’s not impossible, they just missed the easy way to advance, but if there’s anything about this Royals team this year, they like to make it hard for themselves. It’s 7:10p at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday, and be ready for a blowout. Because I’m getting a feeling it’ll be one for whichever side wins.