Featured Columnist IVOctober 8, 2024
Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images
The Kansas City Royals stole home-field advantage from the New York Yankees in their American League Divisional Series matchup with a 4-2 road victory in Monday’s Game 2, but not everybody with the AL East team is worried.
“Still feels the same that we’re going to win it,” Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. told reporters. “I don’t feel like anybody feels any different. We’re going to go out there and do our thing still. We still don’t feel like any other team is better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight, so they just got lucky.”
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Jazz Chisholm Jr. was asked if he felt the ALDS felt different after Game 2 compared to Game 1:
“Still feels the same that we’re going to win it. I don’t feel like anybody feels any different. We still don’t feel like any other team is better than us” pic.twitter.com/zjQQBvZMYf
New York had its opportunities with seven hits and five walks but was unable to cash in on the majority of them.
In fact, it put a runner in scoring position in each of the first three innings and chased starter Cole Ragans after just four frames. Yet it was only able to score one run against him, and the Royals bullpen controlled the game from there with five innings of one-run baseball.
It was Chisholm who gave the Yankees their only run against Kansas City’s bullpen with a solo homer in the ninth, but all that did was cut the final deficit to two instead of three.
Kansas City failed to score in eight of the nine innings but did enough damage in the fourth.
Salvador Perez launched a solo homer to start the scoring, while RBI singles from Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson and Maikel Garcia gave the visitors four runs in the frame. That was all they needed thanks to the strong performance from their bullpen.
The Yankees are the No. 1 seed in the American League, while the Royals are one of the wild-card teams. That Chisholm and others still have confidence after just one loss doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but the pressure will be firmly on their shoulders as the series shifts to Kansas City.
If they can’t win either Wednesday’s Game 3 or Thursday’s Game 4, their excellent season will suddenly be over. If they manage a split, the decisive Game 5 will be back in New York on Saturday.
As for the Royals, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they used Chisholm’s comments as bulletin board material as they return home.
