The Yankees were plagued by missed opportunities in Monday’s Game 2 loss to the Royals that saw them squander home-field advantage in the ALDS — but as Jazz Chisholm Jr. put it: “It still feels the same, that we’re going to win [the series].”
Frustration did not permeate the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium on Monday night. A bunch of wasted opportunities combined to squander the New York Yankees’ chance to push the Kansas City Royals one loss from playoff elimination, but frustration did not surface in the quiet room. There wasn’t any anger. Emotions were held in check.
The heavily favored Yankees instead exuded a cool confidence after their 4-2 defeat in Game 2, a result that shifted home-field advantage to the Royals in a best-of-five American League Division Series tied at one game apiece heading to Missouri for Game 3 on Wednesday.
“It still feels the same, that we’re going to win [the series]”, Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “I don’t feel like anybody feels any different. We’re going to go out there and do our thing still. We still don’t feel like any team is better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight so they just got lucky.”
For three innings Monday, the Yankees played like the superior club.
Carlos Rodon, feeding off the rowdy home crowd, struck out the side in the first inning with 12 pitches and an electric fastball that touched 98 mph. Two innings later, Giancarlo Stanton muscled a one-hopper in the hole that Royals star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. couldn’t cleanly field with his backhand to score Gleyber Torres from third base for the game’s first run and incite a deafening roar.
While Rodón cruised — he threw just 39 pitches through three innings — Royals starter Cole Ragans, who was dominant over six scoreless innings against the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Wild Card Series five days earlier, needed 70 pitches to get nine outs.
