Sanchez, Voit lift Yankees
Tying home run, go-ahead double give N.Y. victory
Gary Sanchez homered off Greg Holland in the ninth inning, Luke Voit hit a winning double and the New York Yankees survived another blown save by Aroldis Chapman to beat the Kansas City Royals 6-5 on Wednesday night.
The lead changed three times in the last two innings. Carlos Santana put the Royals ahead 3-2 in the eighth against Zack Britton, and Rougned Odor hit a two-run homer in the bottom half against Jake Brentz.
Chapman (5-2) forced in the tying run with a fourpitch walk to rookie Sebastian Rivero with two outs in the ninth, blowing a save for the third time in his past eight chances.
Ryan O’hearn, who put
Kansas City ahead with a two-run homer in the first, followed with a go-ahead infield hit on a slow roller to third, just beating DJ Lemahieu’s throw to first.
Sanchez hit his 12th home run off Greg Holland (2-3) with one out in the bottom half, and then Giancarlo Stanton singled to right.
Pinch-runner Tyler Wade advanced on a wild pitch and Voit, in his second game back from the injured list, reached down for a slider and sent the ball high off the left-field wall, missing a home run by about a foot. Wade scored standing up.
It was Voit’s first gameending hit in the majors. New York has six walk-off wins this season.
Rivero, a rookie who is 0-for-7 in his big league career, entered in the fourth inning after catcher Salvador Perez took a foul tip off his mask. Chapman’s final pitch to him was more than a foot outside, and the closer screamed in anger at
himself, then slammed his glove after Jarrod Dyson grounded out.
Kansas City walked 11 batters, its most since July 5, 2019, against Washington. Danny Duffy and Carlos Hernandez walked three each, Scott Barlow and Brentz two apiece, and Josh Staumont one. New York hadn’t drawn 11 walks since 2017.
O’hearn homered for
the second straight game since his return from Triple-a, putting the Royals ahead with a 339-foot drive into the right field short porch off Michael King.
Clint Frazier, who had been 6-for-38 with runners in scoring position this season (.158), tied the score in the fourth against Hernandez with an oppositefield double off the base of the manual scoreboard.