Alex Verdugo secures Yankees victory in nip-and-tuck Game 1

NEW YORK – Alex Verdugo hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning and saved at least one run with a sliding catch down the left field line, giving the New York Yankees a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night in their AL division opener Series.

New York's Gleyber Torres and Kansas City's MJ Melendez hit two home runs in a back-and-forth game in which the Royals blew leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 5-4 and the Yankees failed to score 2: 1 to hold 4-3 edges. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first postseason game with five lead changes.

Kansas City's pitchers matched their season high with eight walks and forced two runs in the fifth inning. The Yankees were just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position before Verdugo singled off closer Michael Lorenzen.

Verdugo's goal was matched by Jazz Chisholm Jr., who scored a single on a play that was left standing after a video review to secure second place. Yankees manager Aaron Boone subbed Verdugo for rookie lefty Jasson Dominguez in a defense-influenced decision. Verdugo entered the game going 2-for-34 at the plate.

With the Yankees trailing 3-2, Verdugo made a sliding catch on Michael Massey's fly just inside the line in the fourth inning, leaving two runners stranded. The ball hit Verdugo's right wrist just below his glove and bounced off his chest before he grabbed it with his bare left hand.

Chisholm, playing third base for the first time this year after the Yankees acquired him from Miami at the July trade deadline, made three good defensive plays, two with help from first baseman Oswaldo Cabrera, and started on Anthony Rizzo's broken one fingers.

Four Yankees relievers combined to allow just one unearned run over four innings after ace Gerrit Cole left unhappy with his performance. Clay Holmes, who was relieved of his position as closer last month, worked 1⅔ innings in the win. Luke Weaver got four straight outs for the save in his postseason debut.

Yankees star Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. went 0-for-5 and barked at plate umpire Adam Hamari after getting a third strikeout in the ninth.

Juan Soto went 3 for 5 and struck out Salvador Perez in the second inning as he tried to score on a single by Melendez to right from second. Kansas City first baseman Yuli Gurriel threw runners against the plate on grounders in the first and fifth.

After an off day between Games 1 and 2, the series between the AL-top-ranked Yankees and the wild-card Royals continues Monday night. These teams met in four playoffs from 1976 to 1980, with the Yankees winning the first three games and being defeated in the final game.

Cole allowed four runs – three earned – and seven hits in five-plus innings. Royals starter Michael Wacha gave up three runs, four hits and three walks in four-plus innings.

Tommy Pham hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning, and Torres gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the third inning with a 339-foot home run just over the short porch in right field.

Melendez's two-run home run in the fourth gave Kansas City a 3-2 lead, but the Royals' pitchers issued four seven-pitch walks in the fifth and forced runs on walks from Angel Zerpa to Austin Wells and from John Writer to Anthony Volpe. The Yankees hadn't issued two bases-loaded walks in a postseason game since Bullet Joe Bush and Joe Dugan hit Rosy Ryan of the New York Giants in Game 6 of the 1923 World Series.

Volpe's throwing error at shortstop set up pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson's two-run single in the sixth inning through a packed infield that gave the Royals a 5-4 lead. Wells' two-out RBI single off Lorenzen tied the game in the bottom half.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.