Inside The Pinstripes

Yankees Outlast Royals in 'Weird, Wild' Extra Innings Marathon

The New York Yankees outlasted the Kansas City Royals in extra innings at Kauffman Stadium, a historic game and another win for the injury plagued Yankees

Max Goodman

KANSAS CITY — For 17 innings, stretching from Saturday's victory over the Mariners to the sixth frame on Monday night in Kansas City, the Yankees didn't score a run. 

From the seventh inning on at Kauffman Stadium, however, New York's injury-plagued lineup simply couldn't stop scoring.

The Yankees pushed across at least one run in five straight frames, showing signs of life in the opener of a three-game set. Problem is, for every run New York scored, the bullpen promptly gave it right back in the bottom of each frame, allowing the Royals to hang around deep into the night. 

Finally, after four blown leads—a historic meltdown from the bullpen—left-hander Wandy Peralta was able to shut the door with a bit of a cushion in the 11th as the Bombers outlasted the Royals, 8-6.

Four Yankees relievers were charged with a blown save Monday night, from Jonathan Loaisiga in the seventh inning to Clay Holmes in the 10th. With those four comebacks, the Royals became the first team in the modern era to erase a deficit in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th innings in the same game, according to STATS.

That wasn't the only record-setting part of this back-and-forth marathon. 

The Yankees-Royals game is also the first in MLB history in which both teams scored in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th innings, per Elias. 

Jameson Taillon started the contest for the Yankees, putting together another tremendous outing as he continues to dominate dating back to the beginning of July. He ended up spending the rest of his night in the clubhouse, however, watching each teams trade blows on television long after he was battling on the mound. 

"It was one of the weirder, wilder games I've ever seen," Taillon said.

Shortly after Taillon hit the showers, so did his manager. With Loaisiga on the mound, the right-hander was called for a balk sending pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson to third base. Dyson wound up scoring the tying run moments later on a sacrifice fly to right field. 

Aaron Boone was enraged by the balk call, quickly emerging from the third-base dugout to argue with home plate umpire Pat Hoberg. The skipper was promptly thrown out of the ballgame, forcing Boone to watch the rest of the hectic game from the clubhouse as well.

"These guys have gotten really comfortable playing in these seemingly close games night in and night out," Boone said. "I thought tonight was another indicator of them just continuing to—even when it's not perfect—continuing to play. So many guys came up big in big spots tonight for us. I think part of that is it hasn't been easy for us, and we've had to win these games."

As much as New York's bullpen prolonged the game, allowing Kansas City to keep battling back, it was timely hitting from the Bombers that allowed them to come away with the victory. A big part of that eventual outburst on offense came from hometown hero Luke Voit, making a huge impact in just his second game off the injured list.

Voit delivered a go-ahead RBI single in the seventh to open the scoring, adding what appeared to be a game-winning solo home run in the top of the ninth to the opposite field. 

Zack Britton was unable to close it out in the bottom of the frame, though, sending the contest to extra innings.

"It was the definition of a team win and everybody on the lineup card got the job done," Voit said. "Obviously we had some ups and downs in the game, but we kept fighting back and luckily we came out with the win."

Although it didn't look pretty, New York continues to defy a barrage of adversity, winning games without countless key contributors. A total of 19 players are on the injured list as of late Monday night, a group that grew earlier in the afternoon when shortstop Gleyber Torres landed on the IL with a left thumb sprain. Four of those sidelined are on the COVID-19 injured list, testing positive for the virus this month.

That said, obstacles and misfortunes haven't precluded this team—rooted in inconsistencies throughout the first several months of the season—from hitting their stride of late. New York is now 16-7 since the All-Star break, the best record in all of baseball. 

The win also puts the Yankees two games back of a spot in the American League Wild Card game, six games back of first place in the AL East. The road to the postseason is far from over, but considering how many games this team has allowed to slip through their fingertips earlier in the year, coming out on top in a grind like this certainly has the potential to light a fire under a group that's already playing great baseball.

"Proud of the way the guys up and down the lineup continue to fight, continue to tack on runs, coming through in big spots and I'm happy we got this win," Brett Gardner said after the win. 

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Max Goodman
MAX GOODMAN

Max Goodman covers the New York Yankees for Sports Illustrated and FanNation. Goodman has been on the Yankees beat for three seasons. He is also the publisher of Sports Illustrated and FanNation's Jets site, Jets Country. Before starting Inside The Pinstripes, Goodman attended Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism and Master’s Degree in Sports Media, graduating in 2019. At school, Goodman was an anchor and reporter with NNN SportsNight and played on the club baseball team. While at Northwestern, Goodman interned with MLB.com as an associate reporter covering the Miami Marlins. He also interned with ESPN, working as an associate reporter on Mike Greenberg's Get Up. Goodman is from New York City. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen. Follow Goodman on Twitter @MaxTGoodman. You can connect with him via email by reaching out at maxgoodmansports@gmail.com.

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