NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Verdugo hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning and saved at least one run with a sliding catch along the left-field line, boosting the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 6-5 on Saturday night in their AL Division Series opener.

New York’s Gleyber Torres and Kansas City’s MJ Melendez hit two-run homers in a back-and-forth game in which the Royals wasted leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 5-4 and the Yankees failed to hold 2-1 and 4-3 margins. It was the first postseason game with five lead changes, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“What a game!” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Kansas City pitchers tied their season high with eight walks, forcing in a pair of runs in the fifth inning. The Yankees were just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position before Verdugo lined a single off loser Michael Lorenzen.

Verdugo’s hit scored Jazz Chisholm Jr., who singled leading off and stole second on a play allowed to stand following a video review.

“I think we did have a really good argument that that should have been overturned,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.

Boone started a slumping Verdugo in left over rookie Jasson Domínguez in a decision influenced by defense.

“I feel like I’m pretty real with myself,” Verdugo said. “As in fans booing me, fans getting on me. I understand it. I was booing myself, too.”

Verdugo entered in a 3-for-25 skid at the plate.

“I just kind of let it spiral out of control a little bit,” Verdugo said. “For me, it was just really leaning on my guys in the clubhouse. They all got my back. They all know what kind of player I am and how I played throughout my whole career and just kept telling me, `Man, don’t let this season or this little glimpse make your whole year. You can make up for a lot of things in the playoffs.’”

With the Yankees trailing 3-2, Verdugo made a sliding catch on Michael Massey’s fourth-inning fly just inside the line to strand two runners. The ball hit the heel of Verdugo’s glove and bounced off his chest before he grabbed it with his bare hand.

“Thank goodness it popped over to the left hand, so it all worked out,” he said.

Chisholm, playing third base this year for the first time after the Yankees acquired him from Miami at the July trade deadline, made three fine defensive plays, two with the help of first baseman Oswaldo Cabrera, starting because of Anthony Rizzo’s fractured fingers.

Four Yankees relievers combined to allow only an unearned run over four innings after ace Gerrit Cole came out, unhappy with his performance. Clay Holmes, dropped from his closer’s job last month, worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings for 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 standout Bobby Witt Jr. was 0 for 5, barking at plate umpire Adam Hamari after a called third strike in the ninth.

Juan Soto went 3 for 5 and threw out Salvador Perez in the second inning trying to score from second on Melendez’s single to right. Kansas City first baseman Yuli Gurriel threw out runners at the plate on grounders in the first and fifth.

After a day off between Games 1 and 2, the series between the AL-best Yankees and wild-card Royals resumes Monday night. These teams met in four playoffs from 1976-80, with the Yankees winning the first three and getting swept in the last.

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 second-inning sacrifice fly, and Torres put the Yankees ahead 2-1 in the third with a 339-foot home run just over the right-field short porch.

Melendez’s two-run homer in the fourth gave Kansas City a 3-2 lead, but Royals pitchers issued four seven-pitch walks in the fifth, forcing in runs with walks by Angel Zerpa to Austin Wells and by John Schreiber to Anthony Volpe. The Yankees had not gotten a pair of bases-loaded walks in a postseason game since Bullet Joe Bush and Joe Dugan against the New York Giants’ Rosy Ryan in Game 6 of the 1923 World Series.

“They looked at a lot of pitches. We were close, but not good enough pitches to make them count,” Zerpa said through a translator.

Volpe’s throwing error at shortstop set up pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson’s two-run, sixth-inning single through a drawn-in infield that put the Royals ahead 5-4. Wells, in a 2-for-43 slide, tied the score in the bottom half with a two-out RBI single off Lorenzen.

UP NEXT

New York’s Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.96 ERA) starts Game 2 in the best-of-five series against the Royals’ Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.14) in a matchup of left-handers.

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AP MLB:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer in his post-season debut, Teoscar Hernández’s two-run single gave Los Angeles its first lead in a playoff game in two years, and the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 7-5 in their National League Division Series opener Saturday.

Manny Machado’s two-run homer off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, also making his first playoff appearance, put Los Angeles in an early 3-0 hole.

Ohtani quickly bailed out the Dodgers with his two-out homer that tied it 3-all in the second inning. The Japanese superstar went deep with Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax looking on and fans chanting “MVP! MVP!” His shot travelled 372 feet to right field, the sellout crowd of 53,028 recording it all on their phones.

San Diego went ahead 5-3 before the Dodgers rallied with three runs in the fourth.

Tommy Edman scored on a wild pitch by reliever Adrian Morejon, who took the loss. Ohtani had a broken-bat single and later scored, along with Mookie Betts, on Hernández’s single off Jeremiah Estrada that put the Dodgers ahead 6-5.

It was their first lead in a post-season game since the seventh inning of Game 4 against the Padres in a 2022 NLDS. Los Angeles was swept by Arizona in a Division Series last year.

Trailing 7-5, the Padres had the potential tying runs on base with two outs in the ninth. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled off Blake Treinen before Jurickson Profar walked to bring up Machado, who struck out swinging. Treinen earned the save.

San Diego also had the potential tying runs in scoring position in the eighth. Michael Kopech issued a leadoff walk to Profar before Machado took a called third strike. Jackson Merrill, a top contender for NL Rookie of the Year, drew a 10-pitch walk.

Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas made an over-the-shoulder catch on Xander Bogaerts’ pop fly in shallow left-centre before Treinen walked Jake Cronenworth to load the bases. With blue rally towels waving furiously, Treinen struck out Donovan Solano swinging to end the threat.

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AP MLB:

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MOOSE JAW, Sask. – Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck promised to improve health care and build a new school as both she and Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe campaigned in Moose Jaw on Saturday.

Beck was joined during her appearance by former premier Lorne Calvert, and she pledged an NDP government would construct a new elementary school next year to replace an older one in the city.

Calvert previously represented Moose Jaw in the legislature and was premier the last time the NDP held government, losing in 2007 to the Saskatchewan Party who have held power ever since.

Moe reiterated his party’s plans to make life more affordable while he campaigned in Moose Jaw on Saturday.

In a news release, the Saskatchewan Party said Moe capped off the first week of the campaign with a summary of policies he’s announced so far, including a pledge for relief on personal income tax rates and a promise to increase the Graduate Retention Program benefit.

Election day is Oct. 28.

“Making life more affordable for Saskatchewan people — that’s an important part of our plan for a strong economy and a bright future,” Moe said in the party’s news release, while chiding the NDP for past support of the federal carbon tax.

The NDP, meanwhile, scolded Moe in a news release earlier Saturday, saying the Dr. F.H. Wigmore Regional Hospital in Moose Jaw has seen many days where basic radiography and laboratory services, as well as other services, were not available.

“Scott Moe and the Sask. Party need to answer for their failures on healthcare which has forced Moose Jaw families to be without the care they need,” the NDP stated in the release.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.