Royals Fall To Yankees 5-4 In Series Finale At Kauffman Stadium

Jacoby Ellsbury delivered four hits Tuesday night, including a bases-loaded single off reliever Joakim Soria — the ball literally struck the pitcher before rolling toward third base — that scored the winning run in the 10th inning, thus lifting the Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

Royals Fall To Yankees 5-4 In Series Finale At Kauffman Stadium

“You need breaks throughout the whole season,” Ellsbury said. “Fortunately it was a break for us and it ended up working out, and we got out of a jam in the 10th inning.”

The two teams have now evened the series at one game apiece. The game was delayed 59 minutes by rain after the fifth inning.

Ellsbury’s ground ball bounced off Soria’s glove and caromed toward third baseman Christian Colon, whose throw to first wasn’t remotely in time, and pinch-runner Aaron Hicks scored from third.

“It’s an easy ground ball right to me,” Soria said. “I don’t know if I slipped or something, but I ended up on the ground. Frustrating.”

The Royals, the defending World Series champions, had runners on second and third with none out in the bottom of the 10th, but reliever Ben Heller struck out Lorenzo Cain. Kansas City then had the bases loaded and one out, but Yankees reliever Chasen Shreve struck out Kendrys Morales, and got Salvador Perez to fly out to end the game and earn his first career save.

“It’s really difficult. Kendrys Morales is a great RBI guy, Salvador Perez kills lefties,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “Really tough situation. [Shreve] came in and really picked us up.”

Heller was acquired by the Yankees in July in the Andrew Miller trade.

New York remained 3 1/2 games behind the Orioles in the American League Wild Card standings. With the home loss, the Royals fell to three games behind Baltimore.

Caught in a 2-for-28 skid, Yankees rookie Aaron Judge made solid contact in his first plate appearance, blasting a two-run homer to left-center field off Edinson Volquez. It was the third major league homer for the rookie, who struck out in all three of his plate appearances on Monday. According to Statcast™, Judge’s exit velocity was 103 mph and the home run traveled an estimated 419 feet from the plate.

“It’s just baseball, man,” Judge said before the game. “You’ve just got to battle and grind. When you get that pitch, don’t miss it.”

Girardi also praised Judge for his batting work.

“It’s great. Big two-run homer, gave us the lead,” Girardi said. “It was good to see. I still think his at-bats are pretty good. There’s some strikeouts there, but this guy’s got nine RBIs in less than 50 at-bats. He’s been productive.”

Masahiro Tanaka allowed two runs over five innings before the hour-long rain delay ended his night prematurely.

Dellin Betances blew his first save since taking over the closer role, allowing an inherited runner to score the tying run in the eighth inning.

After going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranding nine men on base during the first six innings, the Yankees’ offense disappeared late in the game as the Royals bullpen retired nine of 10 batters between the seventh and ninth while the offense played catch-up.

The two teams will face off for the series finale at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night. Right-hander Luis Cessa (4-0, 4.11 ERA) will start for the Yankees, while righty Ian Kennedy (9-9, 3.57 ERA) will take the mound for the Royals.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – MAY 24: Salvador Perez #13 of the Kansas City Royals hits a two-run home run against the Minnesota Twins during the second inning of the game on May 24, 2016 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)