The Yankees lose Game 2 to the Royals but are still confident with the ALDS tied

NEW YORK – Frustration didn't show in the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium on Monday night. A series of missed opportunities led to the New York Yankees squandering a chance to keep the Kansas City Royals out of the playoffs, but the frustration didn't show in the quiet room. There was no anger. Emotions were kept under control.

Instead, the heavily favored Yankees exuded cool confidence after their 4-2 loss in Game 2, a result that shifted home-field advantage to the Royals in a best-of-five American League Division series with one each The game was tied against Missouri and Game 3 was played on Wednesday.

“It still feels the same that we're going to win (the series),” said Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. “I don't feel like anyone feels any different. We’re still going to go out and do our thing, we were just lucky.”

For three innings on Monday, the Yankees played like the superior team.

Carlos Rodon, feeding off the raucous home crowd, struck out the team in the first inning with 12 pitches and an electric fastball that reached 98 miles per hour. Two innings later, Giancarlo Stanton hit a one-hopper into the hole that Royals star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. couldn't cleanly deflect on his backhand to Gleyber Torres from third base for the game's first run hit and cause a deafening noise.

While Rodón shined – throwing just 39 pitches in three innings – Royals starter Cole Ragans, who dominated six scoreless innings against the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Wild Card Series five days earlier, needed 70 pitches to get nine outs. Yankee Stadium was a hive of activity. A devastating blow seemed imminent. It never came.

The Yankees didn't muster another run until Chisholm led off the ninth inning with a home run to briefly revive the building. They won Game 1 despite failing to gain with runners in scoring position, but they were unable to overcome the shortcoming in Game 2, leaving eight runners on base and going one for six with runners in scoring position. New York is 3-for-19 with runners scoring in the series.

“They made their pitches when they needed to,” Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge said. “We put a couple of guys in scoring position and they came through and made some tough shots against us. But we had to come through in those situations and get the win.”

As in Game 1, Judge's first at bat in Game 2 came after Torres and Juan Soto reached base. And like Game 1, he got the first of three consecutive outs to end the threat.

The presumptive AL MVP, who was 10-for-74 with 28 strikeouts in 18 postseason games since 2020, narrowly missed a home run to right field in his second at-bat, walked and reached in his third plate appearance the base on an infield single in the eighth. He finished Tuesday 1-3 after going 0-4 with three strikeouts and a walk in Game 1.

“You can never ignore him,” Soto said. “He’s the greatest batsman of all time right now. He just does his thing. Had a little trouble with the fastball today, but I know he’ll bounce back.”

The Royals had no problems in that regard during a four-run fourth inning. Veteran catcher Salvador Perez sparked the breakout with a leadoff home run off Rodón, hitting his first postseason home run in nine years.

“It still feels the same that we are going to win (the series). I don't feel like anyone feels any different. We're going to go out there and still do our thing. We still don't have the feeling. Like every team, it's better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight, so they just got lucky.”

Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.

“Anytime Sal’s awake, you’re always nervous,” Witt said. “You never know what’s going to happen, so he just made it big, and that’s what players like that do.”

From there, the Royals used four singles and exhilarating baserunning to attack three more. Yuli Gurriel cracked a single and took second base on a Rodón wild pitch. Two batters later, Tommy Pham laced a line drive to center field to score the 40-year-old Gurriel from second base. Pham then grabbed second and scored on a single by Garrett Hampson, who suddenly chased Rodón out of the game.

Each of the four run-scoring hits came via sliders. They left Yankee Stadium in silence as a “Let's go, Royals” chant rang out during the Kansas City Chiefs' win at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Yankees and Royals meet across the parking lot from Arrowhead on Wednesday for the first postseason game at Kauffman Stadium since Game 2 of the 2015 World Series.

The Royals will head into the host team with confidence knowing that Witt – the presumptive AL MVP runner-up – is 0-for-10 in the series, their vaunted starting rotation has logged just eight innings in two games and they've only needed one extra base scored on Tuesday to secure home advantage. The Yankees will take the field believing they are the better team that just had some bad luck in Game 2 and expecting a good performance.

“I think that’s been a hallmark of our success,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Especially after some difficult games where we won or lost a bit late or just suffered a hard punch in the gut. These guys are really confident and that’s understandable and we’ll be ready to go into Game 3.”