Josh Allen shouldering the blame for Buffalo’s offensive struggles following two losses

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning amid a battle of the bullpens, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their AL Division Series at Kauffman Stadium.

Stanton finished with three hits, drove in two runs and stole a base for the first time in four years for the Yankees, who will turn to six-time All-Star pitcher Gerrit Cole on Thursday night with a chance to reach the American League Championship Series.

The Royals used four relievers before Kris Bubic took over for the eighth. The left-hander struck out Austin Wells before Stanton hit his 3-1 pitch nearly 420 feet to left to give New York the lead.

The Royals tried to answer off Luke Weaver in the bottom half, getting Bobby Witt Jr.’s first hit of the series and a two-out single by franchise stalwart Salvador Perez. Weaver recovered to get Yuli Gurriel to fly out to end the threat, and he also handled the ninth to earn the save and cap 4 1/3 scoreless innings by the New York bullpen.

The Yankees won despite another frustrating night in the post-season for MVP front-runner Aaron Judge. He went 0 for 4 with a walk, and is now 1 for 11 with only an infield single through three games against the Royals.

It helped that the powerful Yankees drew nine walks Wednesday night, giving them 22 for the series.

It was the first playoff game at the K in 3,268 days, since the Royals beat the Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series. They won their first title in 30 years a few days later in New York.

The first baseman on that Royals team, Eric Hosmer, was on hand to deliver the first pitch for a crowd that included Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The Yankees had some good swings against Seth Lugo’s dizzying array of nine pitches, but they had nothing to show for it early on.

Juan Soto flew out to centre in the first on what would have been a homer in 17 ballparks. Judge followed with a liner snared by Witt at shortstop that had an exit velocity of 114 m.p.h. And in the third, Gleyber Torres hit a ball to the warning track in right, moments after a review confirmed that his would-be RBI blooper down the line had landed foul.

The Yankees broke through in the fourth on Stanton’s double — Soto came around from first to score, though he might well have been out had Witt delivered a better relay throw to the plate. And in the fifth, Soto added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The Royals answered with two in the fifth. Kyle Isbel got them on the board with a two-out double to left, and Michael Massey ripped a sinking liner that somehow missed Soto’s glove in right for an RBI triple.

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt was dinged for both runs on four hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. Lugo went five for Kansas City, allowing two hits and walking four against the team that led the league in free passes this season.

UP NEXT

Yankees: Cole (8-5, 3.41 ERA) heads back to the mound Thursday night. He allowed four runs — three earned — over five innings in the opener Saturday night but got no decision in the 6-5 win for New York.

Royals: RHP Michael Wacha (13-8, 3.35 ERA) will face Cole again after pitching just four innings Saturday. He allowed three runs but was long gone by the time the Yankees scored the go-ahead run in the seventh.

___

AP MLB:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

NEW YORK (AP) — Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning, his latest clutch swing in a storybook season full of them, and the New York Mets reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

Edwin Díaz struck out Kyle Schwarber with two runners aboard to end it as New York finished off the rival Phillies in Game 4 of their best-of-five Division Series, winning 3-1 to wrap up a postseason series at home for the first time in 24 years.

“I want to win it all. And ours will be a team that will forever be remembered,” Lindor said. “This will be a team that comes every 10 years and eats for free everywhere they go. And I want to do that. I want to do that. But the job is not done.”

With tears in his eyes, outfielder Brandon Nimmo embraced Lindor as the Mets poured onto the field in excitement following the final out.

Then, in a raucous locker room, they enjoyed the team’s first champagne-soaked clinching celebration in Citi Field’s 16-season history. The last time the Mets won a playoff series in their own ballpark was the 2000 NLCS at Shea Stadium — which came 14 years after the most recent of the franchise’s two World Series titles.

“This is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about,” Nimmo said in a clubhouse interview shown on the giant videoboard in center. “This has been a long time coming. We wanted it so bad for our fan base.”

After three days of rest, New York will open the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday at the San Diego Padres or Los Angeles Dodgers. San Diego held a 2-1 lead in their NLDS heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night.

“Let’s keep this thing rolling!” Mets slugger Pete Alonso told reveling fans still in the stands when he popped out of the clubhouse party for an on-field interview with his large goggles protecting his eyes. “So proud of this group. We’ve overcome so much.”

For the NL East champion Phillies, who won 95 games and finished six ahead of the wild-card Mets during the regular season, it was a bitter exit early in the playoffs and a disappointing step backward after they advanced to the 2022 World Series and then lost Games 6 and 7 of the 2023 NLCS at home to Arizona.

After falling short in October again, Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still looking for the franchise’s third championship.

“We have a really great group. We got beat in a short series,” manager Rob Thomson said.

Perhaps overanxious at the plate with so much on the table, the Mets left the bases loaded in the first and second against Ranger Suárez and stranded eight runners overall through the first five innings.

They put three runners on again in the sixth, this time with nobody out, before No. 9 batter Francisco Alvarez grounded into a force at the plate against All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman.

With the season on the line, Thomson then summoned closer Carlos Estévez to face Lindor, who drove a 2-1 fastball clocked at 99 mph into Philadelphia’s bullpen in right-center, giving New York a 4-1 lead and sending the sold-out crowd of 44,103 into a delirious, bouncing, throbbing frenzy.

“I knew it right away,” Estévez said. “I knew I wanted to go a little bit higher on the pitch. Unfortunately, it was more like middle-away instead of up and away, and as soon as he hit it, I knew he hit it really well.”

With his first homer of these playoffs, Lindor joined Shane Victorino and Hall of Fame slugger Jim Thome as the only major leaguers with two postseason grand slams. The star shortstop also connected for Cleveland at Yankee Stadium in Game 2 of a 2017 AL Division Series.

Edgardo Alfonzo hit the only other postseason slam in Mets history, during a 1999 Division Series at Arizona.

“Got runners on and we couldn’t come up with a big hit until finally, who else? The MVP. I keep saying you could write a book. You could make a movie, because this is it right here,” Mets rookie manager Carlos Mendoza said.

“And then the whole time the inning is unfolding, Lindor is going to do it again. There’s no panic. The way he controls the emotions and he hits that ball. It’s unbelievable.”

Fans chanted “MVP! MVP!” as Lindor disappeared into the dugout and again when he took his position on defense in the seventh.

Game 3 on Tuesday was Lindor’s first opportunity to play at Citi Field since Sept. 8, after he missed time down the stretch with a back injury.

But few players, if any, have been as valuable to their team this year as Lindor, who has provided a remarkable string of big hits and crucial contributions as the Mets rallied from a 24-35 start to their first NLCS since losing the 2015 World Series to Kansas City.

His tying homer in the ninth inning Sept. 11 at Toronto broke up Bowden Francis’ no-hit bid and sparked a critical Mets victory, and his go-ahead homer in the ninth on Sept. 30 in Atlanta clinched a playoff berth.

Lindor also fought back from a 1-2 count to draw an eight-pitch walk leading off the ninth against All-Star closer Devin Williams last week in Milwaukee, helping to set up Alonso’s go-ahead homer that saved New York’s season in the Wild Card Series clincher.

“It’s been an uphill fight. It’s been tough. But we’re still not where we want to be,” Lindor said. “This road, it’s been, yeah, it’s been curvy — but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Mets starter Jose Quintana didn’t allow an earned run in five-plus innings of two-hit ball, and David Peterson pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the win.

Díaz walked his first two batters in the ninth, prompting groans in the stands, but retired the next three — two on strikeouts – for the first postseason save of his career.

Shut down at the plate all series besides a late comeback to win Game 2 at home, the Phillies scored their only run on an error by third baseman Mark Vientos in the fourth.

Hoffman took his second loss, the latest flop by a Philadelphia bullpen that failed to deliver throughout the series.

“Some of it’s execution, maybe some of it’s being familiar with our guys,” Thomson said. “I don’t know. It should work both ways, though.”

UP NEXT

New York went 5-2 against the Padres this season and 2-4 versus the Dodgers.

___

AP MLB:

MONTREAL – Sam Montembeault made 48 saves, Cole Caufield scored the game-winning goal and the Montreal Canadiens opened the NHL season with a 1-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday at the Bell Centre.

Caufield scored a power-play goal at 7:48 of the first period, finishing off a perfectly executed tic-tac-toe play with Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach. The Canadiens’ power play went 1-for-5 on the night after going 0-for-30 during the pre-season.

Toronto pulled goalie Anthony Stolarz with two minutes remaining, but to no avail as Caufield’s goal hung on as the winner. Stolarz stopped 26 shots for the Maple Leafs after presumed starter Joseph Woll was surprisingly kept out of the lineup with “lower-body tightness,” head coach Craig Berube said.

Takeaways

Canadiens: Montembeault’s 48 saves was an NHL record for a season-opening shutout. He became the seventh Canadiens goaltender to post a shutout in a season-opening game. Jacques Plante was the only other to do it against the Maple Leafs (Oct. 6, 1960, Oct. 6, 1955).

Maple Leafs: Toronto had trouble staying out of the penalty box with five minor penalties in the first 40 minutes. The Maple Leafs also went 0-for-4 on the power play and hit three posts in the second period.

Key moment

Midway through the second period, Montembeault flashed the leather with a glove save on a one-timer from the slot by Maple Leafs sniper Auston Matthews, who scored an NHL-leading 69 goals last season. Montembeault’s 48th save of the night was on another Matthews chance from the slot with the clock winding down.

Key stat

Caufield scored a goal in the Canadiens’ season-opener against the Maple Leafs for the third straight season. The 23-year-old American also recorded his 150th career point in his 206th game, becoming the fastest Canadien to reach that mark since Saku Koivu in 1997-98.

Up next

Both teams play their second game in as many days Thursday. The Canadiens travel to Boston to take on the Bruins. The Maple Leafs visit former Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe and the New Jersey Devils.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.