After the New York Yankees accomplished an eleventh inning win over the Kansas City Royals yesterday morning in the wee hours, the Yankees went for the series win last night at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Monday night’s game was a hard-fought 11th inning win, and hoped for an earlier outcome with Nestor Cortes Jr. on the mound for the Yankees; he faced the Royals, Daniel Lynch. But, unfortunately, the Yankees lost the game 8-4 in a game that the Yankees had a season-high four errors.
Nestor Cortes Jr. was not as sharp
In the absence of Corey Kluber, Nestor Cortes Jr. had been great. However, last night that greatness didn’t shine through. Going into the sixth inning with a career-high number of pitches, Cortes kept the Yankees in the game, although giving up four earned runs. The Yankees had their chances to get those runs back but left too many people on base, missed opportunities, and committed too many errors. Plain and simple, the Royal outplayed the Yankees, stealing bases and producing squeeze plays. In the game, the Yankees went 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position while leaving seven on base.
The game started badly for Cortes; Whit Merrifield led off for the Royals and got a centerfield single. Nicky Lopez flew out to Stanton in left. Salvator Perez homered to center to give the Royals an early two-run lead. Carlos Santana ground out to second. Andrew Benintendi doubled to left field. Emmanuel Rivera struck out looking, but the Royals went ahead by two runs.
The New York Yankees got one run back on a passed ball. But the Yankees gave up another run in the third and yet another in the sixth even though the Yankees pulled ahead for the lead in the game.
Bullpen fails as Ridings leads the collapse
The real trouble for the Yankees was when Stephen Ridings was called in to replace Cortes, who had pitched a season-high 80 pitches. One must remember that Cortes is actually a reliever, but because of pitching shortages had been pushed into a starter role. Ridings immediately gave up two runs while only recording two outs. Ridings had previously been lights out for the Yankees, but he just didn’t have it last night. Nick Nelson gave up another run in the eighth. Only Joely Rodriquez had a scoreless inning. All tolled the Yankees bullpen had no strikeouts.
New record for errors in game
Last night was a new record for the Yankees for sloppy play. They recorded a season-high four errors. Two of those errors with throwing errors by backup catcher Kyle Higasioka had only one error in the first half and only four in his entire career. Both of the throws overthrew their targets. After the game, Higgy said it’s just one of those things.
Also, last night Luke Voit showed why Anthony Rizzo is a more competent first baseman. On one down the ling hit, Voit let it roll through his legs as it tipped off his glove for an error. Stephen Ridings committed the fourth error on an infield hit. He threw wide to Voit.
This was a clunker for the New York Yankees, the king of a game that won’t get them into the postseason. The Yankees dropped back another game in the AL East as the Tampa Bay Rays won over the sinking Red Sox.
Today the New York Yankees will go for the win of the series, a rubber game for both teams at 2:10 pm EDT. The Yankees having no pitcher available for the game will likely have a bullpen game using an opener and other relievers to get the win.