Yankees 4, Royals 3: Bombers survive extras thanks to Chisholm walk-off single

Extra innings have not been friendly to the Yankees for a lot of this year. Coming into Wednesday, the Yankees had gone 4-8 in games that went into extras, with several of them often coming in ridiculously frustrating circumstances. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that for them to win this particular extra inning game, it took some big time efforts and some plays going their way. At the plate, Juan Soto quite literally battled through some pain to deliver, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. played the hero in extras to give the Yankees a massive walk-off win.

On the mound in his second start back from the IL, Luis Gil was solid, often working around trouble. In five innings, he allowed one run on five hits and two walks, striking out five.

After Gil got out of a couple jams early, he eventually allowed a breakthrough for the Royals in the fourth. Michael Massey crushed a pitch to right field for a solo shot and a Kansas City lead.

Between Royals’ starter Cole Ragans being a lefty and just a good pitcher in general, the Yankees were struggling to get much of anything going. When, in the fifth inning, Alex Verdugo singled and was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double, it seemed like it was going to be one of those nights. However, there was finally some sort of answer in the sixth.

After a one-out walk to Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto stepped to the plate. Soto had already been slumping a bit as it is, and things seemed to get worse as he then fouled a ball of his foot. In some obvious pain, the trainers came out to look at him, but after some walking around and some practice swings, he stayed in the game. Turns out, he was probably okay. Two pitches later, Soto crushed a Ragans pitch to right field for a homer, giving the Yankees the lead.

Coming in for Gil in the sixth, Tim Hill had a nice 1-2-3 inning. Demoted from his closer role, Clay Holmes came in for a still high leverage situation in the seventh. Things quickly got off to a rocky start as he allowed singles to his first two batters. He got a couple fly outs after that, but they were both deep enough for Kyle Isbel to tag up and go to third and then home, tying things back up.

The Yankees had a golden opportunity to strike right back in the bottom of the seventh, as Anthony Volpe and Anthony Rizzo singled and walked respectively with one out in the inning. Next up was Jose Trevino, who hit a very high chopper that hung in the air forever. Salvador Perez fielded the ball and tried to tag Trevino, who was ruled to have evaded it. As that was happening, Volpe then attempted to dash home, but a good throw from Perez was in time to get him at the plate. To make matters worse, the Royals challenged the play at first, and it was ruled that Trevino had actually been tagged, ending the inning and the threat.

Tommy Kahnle looked excellent in the eighth inning, but Lucas Erceg worked around an Aaron Judge single to answer with a scoreless bottom half of the inning. In the ninth, Jake Cousins got two quick outs before issuing a walk to Tommy Pham, which is not ideal with Bobby Witt Jr. then due up. However, Cousins managed to pick off Pham, giving the Yankees a chance in the bottom of the ninth. The lineup couldn’t take advantage of that, and the game was off to extra innings.

Cousins remained in for the 10th and got it off to perfect start by striking out Witt. However, a stolen base by automatic runner Dairon Blanco and a wild pitch allowed the Royals to score and take a lead. Luke Weaver replaced Cousins after that and kept Kansas City to just the one run.

With the bottom of the order due up in the bottom of the 10th, Oswaldo Cabrera — who had come in as a pinch-runner for Rizzo earlier in the game — laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved auto-runner Volpe to third. Despite a lefty in Kris Bubic on the hill, Austin Wells was sent up as a pinch-hitter, and he got one in the air, just deep enough for Volpe and tag up and score to keep the game going.

Weaver came back out for the 11th and never let the automatic runner get beyond second base, striking out two. That set the Yankees up with the heart of the order due up in the bottom half of the inning.

Soto was due up first, and he hit a grounder that led to an out but did allow a pinch-running Jon Berti to move to third. Naturally, the Royals then walked Aaron Judge both to avoid him and set up a double play. With the inning in the hands of Chisholm, he hit a grounder pretty hard towards the hole. Witt made a great diving stop, but with Berti jetting home, he was a bit off balance for the throw and sent it wide. Berti scored and the Yankees had themselves a hard-fought win.

Elsewhere, the Red Sox did the Yankees a favor, as Tyler O’Neill’s walk-off homer gave Boston a win over the Orioles. That extends the Yankees’ lead to 1.5 games ahead of a weekend matchup against that same Red Sox team. The opener of that series in the Bronx is scheduled to feature Nestor Cortes and Cooper Criswell facing off on the mound, with first pitch at 7:15 pm ET.

Box score