The Royals offense and season goes out with a whimper, falling 3-1 to the Yankees

It was a heckuva season, friends

Had every Kansas City Royals fan been asked how they would feel if the 2024 season ended with a loss to the New York Yankees in the American League Divisional Series, we would have all taken it in a heartbeat. Fangraphs projected 75 wins for Kansas City this season, a significant 19-game improvement off their 56 in 2023, but still 12-games under .500. Only one of 12 Royals Review staff writers (a blog for Royals fans!) predicted a winning season.

Winning 86 games, leading the American League Central in late August, and reaching the postseason was a huge accomplishment. None of that feels good right now. I’m sure it will in a few days, but not right now.

The Royals finally ran out of gas tonight, falling 3-1 to New York. The Yankees advance to the American League Championship Series while the Royals season ends.

The Yankees jumped on Michael Wacha immediately, needing just three pitches to get on the board. Gleybor Torres led off with a double, his first hit of the series since his opposite-field homer off Wacha in game one. After pulling back a bunt, Soto grounded a single into right field to make it 1-0.

Wacha responded by getting a struggling Aaron Judge to ground into a double play. MJ Melendez made a sliding grab to end the inning, meaning Wacha needed just 10 pitches to get out of the 1st, despite giving up the run.

Meanwhile, as has so often been the case in the past month, Kansas city’s offense started slow. Yankees starter Gerrit Cole quickly retired the first six Royals before Tommy Pham finally got something started with a leadoff single in the 3rd. After nearly grounding into a double play, Kyle Isbel eventually found himself in scoring position, but Michael Massey struck out on three pitches to end the inning.

Aside from the bumpy first inning, Wacha mostly cruised through his first four innings. Only two more Yankees reached base after the Soto single, one being wiped away on a double play. However, he found trouble in the 5th inning.

Anthony Volpe led off with a single, replaced by Alex Verdugo on a fielder’s choice. Back-to-back single by Jon Berti and Gleyber Torres made it a 2-0 game and put runners on the corners with two outs. With the season hanging in the balance. Matt Quatraro went to Lucas Erceg to stop the bleeding, facing Soto. He got the Yankees slugger to fly out, escaping the jam.

The Royals made Cole sweat a bit in the 5th. MJ Melendez smashed a one-out pitch directly into the wind, which kept it in the ballpark, finding its way into Soto’s glove. It didn’t help that MJ was up 3-1 in the count and swung at back-to-back balls. Tommy Pham then lined his second single into left field, but was stranded again after a three pitch strikeout from Kyle Isbel. He too swung at two pitches out of the zone.

Aaron Judge led off the next inning with a double to left center field, his first extra-base hit of the postseason. He moved to 3rd on an Austin Wells ground out and scored on another Giancarlo Stanton hit, making it a 3-0 game. There was still a lot of game left at this point, and three runs isn’t insurmountable, but that hit sure felt like the dagger.

After a Jazz Chisholm walk, Kansas City got their revenge by doubling him up on a lineout from Volpe.

Down 3-0, the drama dialed up in the 6th. Maikel Garcia led off with a single, before being tagged out on a 3-6 double play. On the tag, Volpe caught Garcia with a forearm. Maikel didn’t seem thrilled, but also didn’t seem to have a problem until Chisholm jumped in and started jawing at Garcia.

Before you knew it, the benches were emptied.

The double play quickly became the backstory, but ended up as the biggest missed opportunity of the game. Bobby Witt Jr followed with a single down the right field line, scoring on Vinnie Pasquantino’s double, his first hit of the series. Salvy then popped out to 2nd base to end the inning.

The double play ultimately haulted any shot at a big inning to get Kansas City back into the game, but the Vinnie double made it a 3-1 game.

Tommy Pham continued his singles parade in the 7th before Kyle Isbel hit a ball that all of Kansas City was sure would tie the game. However, just like MJ’s fly ball from earlier, it got caught in the wind and died on the warning track. I retract my earlier statement. This felt like the dagger.

After the Royals offense got to Cole in Game 1, the former Cy Young Award winner cruised tonight, giving up just the single run across 7.0 innings of work, striking out four Kansas City batters.

After working a clean 7th, Angel Zerpa got Soto to begin the 8th before John Schreiber replaced him. Judge worked another walk and then stole 2nd the exact same way Stanton stole 2nd off Schreiber the night before. Salvy had no shot to throw him out.

Schreiber then got behind Stanton, throwing a wild pitch to get to a 3-1 count and moving Judge to 3rd. Quatraro elected to walk Stanton intentionally and replace Schreiber with Sam Long to face Jazz. Duke Ellis replaced Stanton as a pinch runner. Long did his job, getting a ground out to end the inning.

The 8th inning, just as it did last night, represented Kansas City’s best opportunity to stage a comeback.

It lasted all of eight pitches. Garcia watched a fastball for strike three. Massey got down in the count quickly before lining out. Bob grounded to short to end the inning.

Ugly strikeouts from Vinnie and Salvy sealed the deal, and the Royals went quickly in the 9th. It was a painful end to a unbelievable season. We’ll see the boys next year.