Alex Verdugo’s game-wining hit lifts Yankees to 6-5 win over Royals in ALDS Game 1

Aaron Boone could’ve chosen someone else to play left field for the Yankees in their postseason opener Saturday night, including the mega-prospect many of their fans want there.

Instead, Boone stuck with veteran Alex Verdugo and the manager was rewarded with a big game from the bottom of the order. Verdugo hit a tie-breaking RBI single in the seventh inning to put the Yankees ahead for good in a 6-5 victory over the Royals on a night ace Gerrit Cole wasn’t at his best.

The victory gave the top-seeded Yankees a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five AL Division Series with No. 5 Kansas City. The series, which is a renewal of what was, nearly 50 years ago, a near-annual, fiery October occurrence, resumes Monday at Yankee Stadium after an off-day Sunday.

Here are some takeaways…

-Before the game, Boone made it clear why he had faith in Verdugo, who started over wunderkind Jasson Dominguez and batted ninth.

“I felt like this was the way to go for Game 1,” the manager said in the interview room. “Obviously, Alex has been tremendous for us out there defensively. And even though it’s been up and down for him in the second half, especially offensively, I still feel like there’s a really good hitter in there that can provide something for us at the bottom.”

-The Yankees got some good work from their bullpen, particularly Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver. Holmes entered the game in the sixth inning and got the final two outs after the Royals had earlier scored two unearned runs. Then he threw a 1-2-3 seventh, meaning he got five outs without allowing a run. Weaver came in with two out and one on in the eighth after Tommy Kahnle had gotten the first two batters but walked the third. Weaver, the de facto closer who may be called upon earlier than the ninth if Boone deems it necessary, fanned Maikel Garcia on a 96-mile-per-hour fastball to end the eighth. In the ninth, Weaver struck out Michael Massey, won an eight-pitch battle with KC superstar Bobby Witt Jr. that started 3-0 with a called strike three and then finished the game by getting Vinnie Pasquantino to ground out to first.

-Cole was making his 18th career start in the postseason and the eighth for the Yankees and it probably won’t feature prominently in his October scrapbook. It started with an abundance of hard contact. The first six balls put into play by the Royals were measured at 99.9 miles per hour or harder by MLB’s Statcast. One, a deep drive to center in the first inning by Witt Jr., was swatted 397 feet at an exit velocity of 108.4 mph. Aaron Judge raced back and made a nifty running catch on the ball, which Statcast said had an expected batting average of .940.

-Cole’s final line looked like this: five-plus innings, seven hits, four runs (three earned), two walks and four strikeouts. He gave up one home run and threw 80 pitches, 56 for strikes. He did not look sharp and the outing raised his career postseason ERA from 2.93 to 3.05.

-Judge, playing in a postseason where he’s guaranteed to draw a lot of eyeballs and pressure, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He did walk and score in the fifth inning.

–Juan Soto is playing in his first postseason with the Yankees – he’ll draw lots of eyeballs and pressure, too – and he had a big first playoff game in pinstripes, going 3-for-5 and throwing out a runner at the plate.

-The Yankees supplied Cole with a 4-3 lead entering the sixth, but Yuli Gurriel led off with a missile into left field that was hit so hard (106.4 mph) that Verdugo could play it back into the infield quickly enough to hold Gurriel to a single. Several Yankees headed for the mound and were milling around there when Boone emerged from the dugout to make a pitching change, bringing in lefty Tim Hill. One out later, Tommy Pham ended a 10-pitch at-bat by hitting a grounder to short, but Anthony Volpe’s throw to second went awry and the error put runners on second and third.

-The Royals went to a righty pinch-hitter, Garrett Hampson, against Hill and the move worked – he singled through a drawn-in infield and two runs scored, giving the Royals a 5-4 lead. During the regular season, Hampson had been just 2-for-20 as a pinch-hitter.

-The Yankees took a brief 4-3 lead in the fifth inning thanks to a spate of wildness by Royal pitching and the Yanks’ own plate patience. Royals starter Michael Wacha walked Torres, who led off the inning, and was taken out of the game. After Soto singled up the middle, Zerpa walked two more batters, including Austin Wells with the bases loaded to force in a run. Reliever John Schreiber later walked Volpe with the sacks jammed, pushing across another. In the inning, the Yankees had one hit and walked four times.

-Wells, who struggled through September, batting .111 with a .411 OPS, tied the score twice, first with the bases-loaded walk. In the sixth, Verdugo led off with a walk and Soto hit a single to right – his third hit – one out later, bringing up Judge. Judge struck out for the second time, but Wells followed with an RBI single to right, knotting the score at 5.

-The Yankees had a big chance in the first inning, but Wacha got out of trouble. He walked Torres leading off and then Soto hit a double to left for his first Postseason hit as a Yankee. Then Wacha got tough. First, he struck out Judge, who had entered the game 1-for-18 with 11 strikeouts against him. Then he got Wells to hit a grounder to first and Gurriel fired the ball home to nail Torres at the plate. Then Wacha struck out Giancarlo Stanton with a 95-mile-per-hour fastball.

-The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the second inning and might have had more if not for an ill-advised send that got Salvador Perez thrown out at the plate by Soto on a single to right by MJ Melendez. One batter later, though, Pham hit a sac fly to drive in the first run of the game.

-Torres’ homer, the sixth of his postseason career, came in the third inning following a leadoff single by Alex Verdugo. Wacha’s 94-mph fastball drifted back toward the meat of the plate and Torres got enough bat on it to send it out to right, 339 feet away. It was a true Yankee Stadium home run – it would not have been a homer in any other ballpark, according to Statcast. Of course, that hardly matters. Yankee Stadium was the park where Torres was swinging on Saturday night. Torres, by the way, had entered the game 1-for-16 lifetime against Wacha.

-Besides, the Royals got one of their own Stadium shots – in the top of the fourth, Melendez hit a two-run homer that gave Kansas City a 3-2 lead. It, too, would only have been a home run at Yankee Stadium, via Statcast, though Melendez’s longball traveled 24 feet farther than Torres’.

-That inning could’ve been worse for the Yankees, too. Cole struggled in the fourth, throwing 30 pitches. The Yankees had Holmes warming up in the bullpen. With two runners on and two out, Michael Massey blooped one down the left-field line that looked like trouble, but Verdugo went to the ground near the foul line to make the play. It came with a bobble, but eventually corralled it for the final out of the inning.

MVP of the game: Alex Verdugo

Verdugo, who had the key hit and also scored twice – both times after he led off innings by reaching base via a walk and a single. He also made a nice sliding catch in left near the foul line that foiled a Royals scoring chance.

Highlights

Upcoming schedule

Carlos Rodon takes the mound against Cole Ragans as the Yankees and Royals face-off in Game 2 on Tuesday at 7:38 p.m. in the Bronx.