YANK WIN EXTRA WILD
Bombers overcome four blown saves to beat pesky Royals in 11 innings
YANKEES 8 ROYALS 6
KANSAS CITY — The fifth time was the charm, apparently. The Yankees’ bullpen blew four saves Monday night before a freak play in the top of the 11th blew it open and Wandy Peralta finally held off the Royals as the Bombers escaped with an 8-6 win at Kauffman Stadium.
They are the only team in MLB history to blow leads in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th innings. They are only the second team since saves became an official stat to blow four saves in one game. (The other was the Astros in 1995.) This was the first game in MLB history where both teams scored in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th innings.
The Yankees (62-50) bounced back after a loss on Sunday and have won six of their last seven games. They have improved to 7-7 in extra innings on the season.
It took a wild play in the 11th for the Yankees to blow it open. Brett Gardner’s sharp groundball bounced up and hit Royals shortstop Nicky Lopez high, allowing two runs to score. DJ LeMahieu had doubled to lead off the inning, scoring ghost-runner Joey Gallo to give the Yankees their fifth lead of the night.
Andrew Velazquez, the Bronx native filling in for Torres, scored on Kyle Higashioka’s sacrifice fly in the 10th to give the Yankees their fourth lead of the night. Brett Gardner drove in the insurance run. The Royals answered with two on Jerome Dyson’s sacrifice fly and Hunter Dozier’s single.
Zack Britton, closing with Aroldis Chapman on the injured list, issued a two-out walk to Whit Merrifield in the ninth. He gave up an RBI single to Lopez to tie the game. The lefty has been scored on in eight of his 16 appearances; this was the first run off him in his last four.
Luke Voit, back in the starting lineup after Anthony Rizzo was placed on the COVID-19 list, snapped the Yankees’ scoreless streak in the seventh and in the ninth gave them the go-ahead run.
Aaron Judge poked a single into shallow right field and Tyler Wade scored from second base to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the eighth.
Emmanuel Rivera led off the seventh with a single off Jameson Taillon. Jonathan Loaisiga came in and threw away a pickoff attempt. Dyson, pinch running, advanced to third on Loaisiga’s balk, which Aaron Boone argued and got him tossed out of the game.
Judge, trying to score from third on DJ LeMahieu’s chopper back to the pitcher, had gotten thrown out at the plate in the top of the inning. Luke Voit, in his second game back from the injured list and with his first hit since July 10, singled hard through the gap to give the Yankees their first run after 17 scoreless innings.
The Royals cashed in on the Yankees mistakes with Ryan O’Hearn’s sacrifice fly, tying the game a half inning after the Bombers had scrambled for the lead.
That unearned run was a smudge on what had been yet another tremendous start by Taillon. Loaisiga also put two on in the bottom of the eighth without recording an out. Chad Green let one runner score on Andrew Benintendi’s line-drive single to center to tie the game a second time.
Taillon was charged with just that unearned run on four hits. He walked two and struck out four.
After a rough start to the season coming off his second Tommy John surgery, Taillon has pitched to an impressive 2.11 ERA over his last 10 starts. He has allowed two runs or fewer in nine of those starts.