Kansas City Royals hold on against Yankees to win first game of 10-game road trip

Twice in a three-inning span in a loss over the weekend, the Kansas City Royals were left with nothing but a sour taste in their mouth after Whit Merrifield got thrown out running on contact from third base with one out.

Turnabout had to taste delicious for the Royals on Tuesday night as the contact play gave them their first lead of the game and helped spark a pivotal four-run eighth inning that paved the way for a 6-5 series-opening win over the New York Yankees in front of an announced 21,130 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

The Royals (33-38) have now won three of four games heading into Danny Duffy’s return to the mound from the injured list on Wednesday.

“That was a big inning, and you had a bunch of guys that haven’t been, necessarily, the guys who have been doing that either,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the eighth. “We’ve had some big hits from certain guys. It seems like it is Salvy every other night. We had different guys step up.”

The four-run eighth provided the Royals with just enough cushion to hold off the Bronx Bombers.

The Royals trailed 3-2 at the start of the inning. After a Merrifield single and a Carlos Santana double to put men on second and third with no outs, Ryan O’Hearn, who’d been recalled from Triple-A Omaha on Monday, hit an infield single to drive in Merrifield with the tying run.

Jarrod Dyson then grounded to second baseman Tyler Wade with Santana running on contact. Wade took an extra split second getting a grip on the ball before throwing home, and that allowed Santana to beat the throw and score the go-ahead run.

“If we’d have been out again today, I would’ve told you we’d do it again tomorrow,” Matheny said of the contact play. “We’ve got to in that situation, especially with guys on second and third. You’re still going to end up with a guy at third base. Then we’re going to have to go for a big hit at that point. That’s a situation for us that they’re on their heels. I think a lot of it is perspective. We’ve got an opportunity to put pressure on them and make them make a play.”

Hunter Dozier and Michael A. Taylor (2 for 3, walk, run) swatted RBI singles into center field to tack on two more runs as the Royals took a 6-3 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, D.J. LeMahieu’s two-run homer off of Kyle Zimmer pulled the Yankees within a run, 6-5, but Royals stalwart reliever Scott Barlow took over and got through the inning with the one-run lead intact.

Greg Holland pitched around a bloop single and an intentional walk to strand the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base in the bottom of the ninth.

Royals pitchers held the Yankees to 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees (38-34) left 13 men on base.

O’Hearn went 2 for 4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. He homered off of Yankees ace pitcher Gerrit Cole to tie the score 2-2 in the fourth inning.

O’Hearn hadn’t homered in the majors since May 27. He’d led all minor-league hitters with 12 home runs (in 19 games) after being optioned on May 28.

“I think coming into tonight I knew that I did things the right way the last couple weeks,” O’Hearn said. “I had that in the back of my mind, and it helps me to believe in myself. The preparation over the last couple of weeks for whenever I was going to get my next chance was there.

“Then it’s just a matter of getting in there and having fun, not overdoing it, not putting too much pressure on, not trying to hit every ball out of the park.”

O’Hearn later laughed about the fact that the infield single was a much more rare accomplishment for him. He couldn’t remember his last infield single and estimated it had been “years.”

Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer had his previous start abbreviated because of shoulder tightness leading up to that outing.

Tuesday night, he threw 96 pitches and gave up two runs — both on solo home runs by Luke Voit and Kyle Higashioka — and gave up five hits and five walks in 3 2/3 innings. He also struck out five.

Singer struck out five of six batters from the end of the second inning through the beginning of the fourth inning.

“I think at the beginning of the game I was on the attack,” Singer said. “I felt really good, then Voit hit the home run. Then I kind of started picking at them a little too much instead of going right at them. I think that’s definitely what changed.”

After Singer struck out the first two batters of the fourth inning, he ran into trouble with back-to-back walks of LeMahieu and Aaron Judge. Matheny came to the mound after the second walk, but he allowed Singer to face Voit with two men on and two outs in a tie game.

Singer got to 2-2 count on Voit, but Voit fouled off three pitches with a full count before Singer ultimately issued a walk to the last batter he faced.

Left-hander Kris Bubic entered and threw a first-pitch curveball that got Giancarlo Stanton to hit an inning-ending ground ball with the bases loaded.

Bubic pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings without allowing a hit.

The score remained tied 2-2 going into the seventh inning. After Voit hit a triple that got deflected by a fan at the left-field wall, a wild pitch allowed pinch runner Tyler Wade to score the go-ahead run for the Yankees.

The Royals swung the game in the next inning.