Kansas City Royals lose rubber match 8-1 as New York Yankees hit three homers

The Kansas City Royals had a chance to start their three-city road trip with a series victory against the New York Yankees.

But scoring opportunities slipped through their grasp early, and the Royals’ mistakes were immediately turned into runs in Thursday afternoon’s rubber match of the three-game set in the Bronx.

The Royals spotted the Yankees a four-run lead in the first three innings and couldn’t overcome that deficit as they fell 8-1 in front of 21,350 in the series finale at Yankee Stadium. Five of the Yankees’ runs came via three home runs by right-handed hitting sluggers Aaron Judge, Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez.

“Obviously, the same thing happens for us. We can pop out balls to right field too, but right-center plays shallow,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We know that going, so anything elevated up out over the plate to a right-handed hitter, especially to a right-handed, strong, power lineup like this — they’re going to make you pay. It happened a couple times today.”

Royals pitchers also allowed five walks in the game. Two of them came around to score. For the series, they walked 24 — one short of a franchise record for a three-game series.

The Royals (33-40) have now lost 11 consecutive completed series to the Yankees. They’ll continue their road trip with a three-game series against the Texas Rangers Friday night in Arlington.

Royals starting pitcher Brad Keller allowed four runs on nine hits and four walks in five innings. He gave up two home runs and struck out three. He needed 114 pitches to get through five innings.

Keller’s bumpy start kept him from getting deeper into Thursday’s game. He threw 28 pitches in a two-run first inning.

“He was making good pitches and balls just kind of find their way through,” Matheny said. “It has happened to him a number of times now. The first inning has set a tone for him that I believe takes him away from his game plan. ...

“I’d like to see him continue to have trust in the movement that he has. Use the bottom of the zone. Trust the fact that we’re going to make plays behind him and that they are going to be hit towards people. It unfortunately kind of took him out of his game a little bit, and they ran him deep in his counts.”

Judge’s 344-foot fly ball landed a couple rows into the right-field bleachers for a solo home run to start the scoring two batters into the bottom of the first.

Then the Yankees (40-34) took advantage of two singles hit through the second base hole with the defense shifted the other way expecting the right-handed hitters to pull the ball.

With runners on the corners, an infield single drove in the second run. Rougned Odor’s roller also went to second base, but Whit Merrifield was playing in the outfield grass because of another defensive shift. Odor beat out the play by the time Merrifield charged, scooped and threw to first.

“It happens,” Keller said. “Two base hits through the hole where no one was, and then kind of a weak ground ball that scored a run. The home run, a hanging slider. He did exactly what he should’ve done with a hanging slider. It is what it is. The next three hits were tough. I tried to flush it as quick as I could.”

Meanwhile, the Royals put a runner on second base with no outs in the first and second innings and failed to score. They were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Keller paid for a pair of walks with one out in the second inning. With Tyler Wade and D.J. LeMahieu aboard, Judge hit an RBI single to left field to put the Royals behind 3-0.

Voit homered off of Keller in the third inning to give the Yankees a four-run lead.

Keller pitched out of trouble in the fifth after the Yankees loaded the bases with one out after a leadoff single, a one-out double and a walk. Keller got a pop-up in foul territory and froze Tyler Wade on a called third strike to end the inning and his outing.

“That was really encouraging to myself, just to be able to kind of hunker down especially with bases loaded and one out,” Keller said of the fifth. “It’s like I’m one pitch away. Just thinking double play, ground ball. Got a big-time pop-up. Then the next guy, challenged him. Fell behind 2-0, but then it’s like we’ve got to challenge him. We can’t nibble on the edges or try to get a swing and miss. We’ve got to go after him. We were able to execute three really good fastballs to end the inning.”

After Keller turned the ball over to the bullpen, the Yankees wasted no time in stretching out their lead. Reliever Anthony Swarzak gave up three consecutive hits to start the sixth inning, the third hit came in the form of a Sanchez three-run home run that made the score 7-1.

The Yankees tacked on a run in the eighth against reliever Ervin Santana.

The Royals lone run came on Sebastian Rivero’s first major-league hit, an RBI double in the fifth inning with Nicky Lopez on base. It made the score 4-1 at the time.

Rivero, who made his MLB debut earlier this season, had gone 10 plate appearances without his first hit before he ripped a first-pitch slider for a double to left field against Yankees starter Jameson Taillon.

“I always told myself the day I was playing I just wanted to have fun,” Rivero said. “If I get the hit that day, that’s God’s choice. That’s what I said every time. But I think all my family knew that today was the day because everybody — as soon as they saw that I was in the lineup — they said, ‘Today’s the day. You’re going to get your first hit.’ They knew it, apparently.”