KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For three games, the Yankees did not only thoroughly outplay the Royals but were the beneficiaries of every generous bounce.
On Monday, they strung together single after single and laid down bunt after bunt. On Tuesday, they used their muscle and dominant pitching. On Wednesday, they put the game away with an explosive first inning in which the Royals could not find a way to get the third out.
It took some time for the Royals to earn an ounce of luck, but they cashed in during the 36th and final inning of the series.
“Stuff just went their way that inning,” Nestor Cortes said after the Royals used three well-placed hits to tag Clay Holmes with his fourth blown save of the season in a walk-off, 4-3 Yankees loss at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday.
Aaron Boone’s group had to settle for three out of four in the series — a series in which they outscored Kansas City, 25-8, in the first three games — while losing for just a third time in their past 15 contests.
The Yankees (49-22) snapped an overall four-game winning streak and a 15-game winning streak against AL Central opponents, against whom the Yankees are now 17-2 this season.
The fateful frame was a strange one that might not be so strange to Holmes, whose dominance relies not upon whiffs but upon softly hit ground balls. Occasionally those find holes.
The Yankees were two outs away from a sweep when the game went sideways.
The speedy Drew Waters dribbled a slow roller to Anthony Rizzo, who waited by the base for the ball to arrive.
Holmes had a chance to scoop the ball up on his way to covering first but opted to continue on his straight path to the base.
“It’s tough,” Rizzo said. “I’m back. Clay’s kind of going for it, [I’m] telling him to just keep going.”
“It was perfectly in between, I feel like,” Holmes said. “Just a tough play right there.”
“It’s more of a no-man’s-land ball,” Boone said.
Rizzo fielded and flipped to Holmes too late, Waters diving into the base safely on a ball that traveled 2 feet in the air.
The Royals ran with their break. After a fielder’s choice became the second out, Holmes got ahead of No. 9 hitter Kyle Isbel, 0-2, before missing three times.
A full-count sinker was poked up the middle to put runners on the corners.
“Obviously didn’t make a pitch,” said Holmes, who blew his third save since May 20 because he also could not make a pitch to Maikel Garcia.
With the tying run on third and the winning run on first, Holmes got behind 2-0 and tried a third sinker, which ran inside and which Garcia grounded down the third-base line for the game-winning, two-run double.
A party was set off for the Royals in a game that looked far less dramatic a few innings earlier.
Kansas City starter Alec Marsh brought a no-hitter into the seventh — “He was painting the corners,” said Juan Soto, who ended the bid with a solid single into right — and exited after seven scoreless, one-hit innings.
But the Yankees erupted against the Royals’ bullpen in the eighth. Rizzo smoked his first home run since May 10 for the Yankees’ first run and first bit of momentum, which they also ran with.
Austin Wells reached on a hard-hit ground ball that the Royals did not field well, Garrett Hampson booting it before his throw to first was dropped by Vinnie Pasquantino.
After a Trent Grisham single put runners on the corners, Anthony Volpe managed to make contact with a full-count sinker, grounding out but driving in a run. Soto — who else? — then smacked a single into right for the go-ahead run.
Until the ninth, that appeared to be the only inning the Yankees would need.
Cortes was excellent through seven, two-run innings in which he kept a strong Royals offense off-balance and pitched to contact — the kind that backfired for Holmes.
“All losses hurt, especially when you’re up and you’re leading,” Cortes said. “But overall, you let go of this one and you start a new series [Friday] in Boston.”
The Yankees will bring the AL’s best record to Fenway Park.
“Great job of almost grabbing it,” Boone said. “Hey, [the Royals] got a great club, too, and they put together some good at-bats to beat us.”
