If Saturday night’s Yankees/Royals game is any indication of how topsy-turvy this Divisino Series and the rest of the playoffs will go, we are in for a wild ride. The first game in postseason history with five lead changes, this contest truly had it all, from wall-scraping home runs and highlight-reel defensive plays to stranded runners and blunders on both the bases and in the field. Of course, a game ruled by that much chaos just had to be decided by an Alex Verdugo go-ahead single in the seventh, the beleaguered left fielder repaying the trust the team placed in him to start this game.
It was a far more heart-pounding start to the Yankees ’ postseason odyssey than any of us expected, but the team marked the return of October baseball to the Bronx with a series-opening win, 6-5. With their ace on the mound facing the second-worst offense of any playoff team, this should have been a relatively straightforward postseason opener for the Yankees. It was anything but.
Although Gerrit Cole finished his regular season allowing one run in his final two starts totaling 15.2 innings and the Royals had scored just 3 runs in 18 innings in their Wild Card Series sweep of the Orioles, it was the visiting team who held the upper hand over the 2023 AL Cy Young winner. Cole worked a one-two-three first inning on just seven pitches, but all three outs were a tad loud for comfort coming right out of the gate.
Michael Massey, Bobby Witt Jr., and Vinnie Pasquantino all flew out to roughly t.
