NEW YORK -- For the first time ever, all four Division Series matchups are tied at a game apiece. Monday night the Kansas City Royals evened their series with the New York Yankees with a 4-2 win at Yankee Stadium (box score). New York won a dramatic back-and-forth Game 1 on Saturday. The best-of-five ALDS is now a best-of-three.
Two games into this series, the two MVP candidates -- Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. -- are a combined 1 for 17 with an infield single and eight strikeouts while the various No. 9 hitters are a combined 6 for 14. That's baseball for you. In Game 1, New York's supporting cast rose to the occasion. In Game 2, it was the Royals other than Witt who stepped up to win the game.
Here now are three takeaways from Game 2 between the Yankees and Royals, plus a quick look ahead to Game 3.
1. The Royals got to Rodón the second time around
The first inning was maybe Carlos Rodón's most dominant inning of 2024. Three up, three down, three strikeouts on 12 pitches. He mostly cruised through the first three innings overall, allowing only three singles, one of which did not leave the infield. Rodón could not have looked much better three innings into the game.
The game unraveled on Rodón in the fourth inning, after the lineup turned over. New York took a 1-0 lead on Giancarlo Stanton's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the third. Salvador Perez answered right back with a leadoff homer to start the fourth. Yuli Gurriel, Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson, and Maikel Garcia all followed with singles to turn it into a four-run inning.
Hampson, who slashed .230/.275/.300 during the regular season, came through with a two-out, two-strike single to keep the inning alive. With all due respect, that's a hitter Rodón has to put away to squash the rally and keep the deficit at 2-1. Instead, Hampson singled, then Garcia singled, and a survivable two-run inning turned into a four-run meltdown.
The first time through the lineup, Royals hitters went 2 for 9 with five strikeouts against Rodón. The second time around they went 4 for 9 with a homer (Perez) and three two-strike hits (Gurriel, Pham, and Hampson). Rodón left some sliders right in the middle of the plate and Kansas City took advantage. Bad job by him, good job by them.
2. Kansas City's bullpen stood tall
Give the Yankees credit, they really made Royals ace Cole Ragans work. Ragans needed 87 pitches to get through four innings and in those four innings he allowed three hits and walked four. Only four times during the regular season did Ragans walk as many as four batters. The Yankees wore him down and pushed across a run, but that's all. One run.
Ragans went only four innings and Kansas City's offense knocked Rodón out after 3 2/3 innings. Game 2 turned into a battle of the bullpens and the Royals' relief crew was up to the task. The head-to-head comparison:
| Royals | Yankees | |
|---|---|---|
RP used | 4 | 7 |
IP | 5 | 5 1/3 |
H | 4 | 4 |
R | 1 | 0 |
BB | 1 | 2 |
K | 3 | 8 |
HR | 1 | 0 |
The only run Kansas City's bullpen allowed was Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s leadoff home run in the ninth inning. The Yankees did bring the tying run to the plate against Lucas Erceg with two outs in the ninth, though Gleyber Torres grounded out to short to end the game. Chisholm on the homer was the only runner the Royals' bullpen allowed to reach second base in five innings.
Two of the four Royals relievers were left-handed: Angel Zerpa and Kris Bubic. They combined for three innings (two by Bubic). This is notable because the Yankees had issues with lefties during the regular season, particularly lefties who could spin the ball. Zerpa and Bubic can really spam hitters with high-spin breaking balls. They were bad matchups for New York and it showed in Game 2.
During the regular season Kansas City's bullpen ranked 20th in ERA (4.13) and 16th in WAR (3.6). That doesn't represent the bullpen they have now though. Bubic and John Schreiber returned from injuries at midseason and were dynamite late. Erceg came over at the deadline. In September, the bullpen had a 2.77 ERA, fourth best in baseball. That's the group they have now.
The Yankees had Ragans on the ropes early in Game 2 -- they stranded two runners apiece in the first and third innings -- and never did get The Big Hit. They went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and are 3 for 19 in those spots in the two ALDS games. The Royals, meanwhile, are 5 for 15 with runners in scoring position in the series.
That was the difference in Game 2. Ragans executed pitches when he was in a jam and limited the damage. Rodón could not put hitters away when Kansas City rallied in the fourth inning and was done in when he left several sliders in the middle of the plate. One starter got out of trouble, the other didn't, and that was that.
3. The Yankees rolled the dice at first base
With Anthony Rizzo (two broken fingers) and DJ LeMahieu (hip impingement) hurt, the Yankees do not have any good options at first base at the moment, and in Game 2 they stuck utility man Jon Berti at the position. Other than a few innings in spring training back in 2021, Berti had never played the position in a major- or minor-league game.
"He's looked outstanding over there (during his recent workouts)," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about the decision to start Berti at first base prior to Game 2. " He's played a little bit in Spring Training over the years, but just a really natural infielder, and just the person that I have a lot of confidence in ... Just feel like he's really looked the part over there this last week, and I feel like he brings a lot to the table, too."
According to MLB Network, Berti is the third player ever to start at a position for the first time in a postseason game, joining Jake Flowers (third base in the 1931 World Series) and Carlos Santana (left field in the 2016 World Series). It was a risky move and you know what? Berti looked fantastic at first. He snared a line drive to save a run and turned it into a double play in the fifth.
Berti also made two nice scoops to save errors. For someone who had not ever played first in a game that counts, he looked pretty good. The downside is Berti is not much of a hitter, though he did single in the ninth inning of Game 2. New York's first basemen hit .216/.284/.335 this year and are homerless since July 31. At a position with a high offensive bar, the Yankees have gotten very little.
What's next?
The best-of-five ALDS is now a best-of-three. There is yet another off-day Tuesday -- the ALDS schedule has off-days after Game 1, Game 2, and Game 4 this October -- then the series shifts to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City for Game 3 on Wednesday. Clarke Schmidt and Seth Lugo are the scheduled starting pitchers.