ROYAL FUMBLE
Bombers drop ball — 4 times! — in flat loss in Kansas City
Nestor Cortes waits to be taken out of Tuesday night’s 8-4 loss to the Royals, a game in which the Yanks allowed three unearned runs on four errors. Cortes allowed five runs — four earned — in 5 2/3 innings as the Bombers fell seven games behind the first-place Rays.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There was a laundry list of issues with the Yankees’ ugly 8-4 loss to the Royals on Tuesday night.
They were mostly shut down by Kansas City pitching and saw shaky relief outings by Stephen Ridings and Nick Nelson.
And then there were the season-high four errors — two of which were committed by Kyle Higashioka, who had just four errors in his career before Tuesday night.
“Definitely pretty infuriating,’’ Higashioka said of his miscues. “I hate to make errors like that — especially since one directly led to a run. It’s not acceptable.”
Manager Aaron Boone had hoped his team’s wild 11-inning win on Monday would prove to be a spark, but the reality set in Tuesday. They had to let Nestor Cortes Jr. pitch into the sixth inning for the first time and then go to the inexperienced Ridings as the game unravelled — thanks in part to three unearned runs.
The streaking Rays beat the Red Sox for their fifth consecutive victory, so the Yankees fell to seven games back of firstplace Tampa Bay in the AL East.
Even with the defeat, the Yankees have lost just two of their last eight games, despite an injured list that is filled with key players.
Asked why the Yankees might have played such a poor game on Tuesday in the midst of what has been an excellent stretch, Boone said: “I don’t know why. It happens. … Overall, we didn’t play our best tonight.”
Still, they seemed to be in a good spot when DJ LeMahieu’s RBI single gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth.
But Salvador Perez took Cortes deep to open the bottom of the inning for the catcher’s second homer of the night.
“I missed with two pitches in the zone,’’ Cortes said of his approach to Perez, who has 29 home runs on the season. “I didn’t execute and he got me. He’s a great hitter.”
Cortes was replaced by Ridings after Emmanuel Rivera’s two-out single later in the sixth. Ridings, pitching in his fourth game in the majors, gave up a double to left-center to Dozier, which scored Rivera from first, putting the Royals ahead, 5-4.
The night got worse for Ridings in the seventh.
He gave up another booming double to left-center, this one by Michael A. Taylor. Hanser Alberto then bunted back to Ridings, who bounced the throw to first. The ball got away from LeMahieu as Taylor scored and Alberto moved to second.
Joely Rodriguez replaced Ridings and Lopez dropped down a safety squeeze, which scored Alberto.
Luke Voit committed the Yankees’ fourth error on an Andrew Benintendi grounder to lead off the bottom of the eighth against Nick Nelson.
After a pair of walks from
Nelson sent Benintendi to third, he scored on an Alberto sacrifice fly for the third unearned run allowed by the Yankees in the game.
The Yankees had initially overcome a slow beginning to Cortes’ start after the lefty had pitched well in his prior two outings.
In the bottom of the first, Perez hit his first homer of the night, a two-run shot to left-center with one out, to give the Royals an early 2-0 lead.
The Yankees got a run back in the third when Andrew Velazquez scored on a wild pitch after reaching on his first hit for the team, a double.
Higashioka put the Yankees up 3-2 with a 408-foot, two-run homer in the fourth after a Rougned Odor walk.
Cortes settled in after the Perez homer, at one point
retiring 10 in a row.
The Yankees had a chance to add to their lead when they loaded the bases in the fifth on three walks, but with two out, Odor struck out.
After Cortes retired the first two batters in the fifth, Merrifield doubled and stole third. Higashioka’s throw was high and wide, and Odor had to jump over a sliding Merrifield to try to catch it. The ball defected into left field and Merrifield scored on Higashioka’s throwing error, his second of the game, to tie the score 3-3.
Jonathan Davis walked in the sixth and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After Velazquez struck out, LeMahieu singled to right to knock in Davis with the go-ahead run before the Yankees let it slip away.