Merrifield, Perez help sink Yankees

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Whit Merrifield had three hits, stole three bases and scored twice off CC Sabathia in the first four innings, Jakob Junis held down the Yankees’ potent offense and Kansas City beat New York 5-2 on Friday night.

Salvador Perez homered and added three RBIs for the Royals, who had lost five straight and seven of eight, getting swept by Tampa Bay earlier this week for the first time in nearly a decade.

They bounced back against the hottest team in baseball.

Junis (5-3) pitched into the sixth inning, allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk. But most of the hits he allowed were relatively benign base hits, rather than the towering, gamechanging home runs that had powered the Yankees to 19 wins in their last 22 games.

Kelvin Herrera capped a strong bullpen effort with a perfect ninth for his ninth save in 10 opportunities.

Sabathia (2-1) lasted just five innings, struggling all night with his command. The big left-hander allowed just four hits and two earned runs, but two unearned runs came in after second baseman Gleyber Torres coughed up a routine ground ball in the third.

Perez went deep in the fifth to snap a 0-for-13 skid.

The Yankees tried to rally in the sixth, when Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks reached on base hits. Junis was lifted for reliever Tim Hill, who allowed Neil Walker’s runscoring single and Miguel

Andujar’s sacrifice fly before escaping.

The rest of the bullpen never gave the Yankees a chance.

Kyle McCarthy breezed through the seventh, striking out a pair, and Brad Keller handled a scoreless eighth — getting a running catch from Jon Jay — to give Herrera a chance to close it out.

ROSTER MOVE

Yankees RHP David Hale chose free agency over accepting an outright assignment. Hale had a 3.60 ERA before he was designated for assignment Tuesday to create roster space for OF Clint Frazier.

Ed Zurga / Getty Images Neil Walker hits an RBI single in the sixth inning against Kansas City on Friday.