The Royals lost their opening at Yankee Stadium Monday night losing 4-2. Jason Vargas and reliever Seth Maness were the victims of three home runs hit by New York. KC had a chance to tie the game in the seventh, but an overturned call took a run off the board.
The Royals were down 3-2 in the seventh with Jorge Soler on second and Alcides Escobar at the plate. Esky hit a grounder up the middle fielded by second baseman Starlin Castro who had to bounce his throw to Chris Carter at first. Esky was ruled safe and when Carter turned to the ump, an alert Soler kept running home and beat the late throw. The Yankees challenged the call and won, and the score stayed a one run game.
Carter homered in the bottom half of the seventh off Maness to make it a two-run game.
Vargas pitched much better than his last outing when he took the loss in a 7-1 final at Kauffman Stadium, but the lefty remains winless in his career against the Yankees.
Vargas gave up homers to Brett Gardner and Didi Gregorious, the two lefties in the lineup and only allowed four hits in six innings, but two of them left the ballpark.
“When you come off the field and you’re losing the ballgame, you didn’t do your job,” said Vargas.
Other notes: Jorge Bonifacio’s homer was the Royals’ 48th of 2017, keeping them on track to break the club mark. Alex Gordon and his wife have a third child. Their first daughter was born on Monday. Gordon is on paternity leave and should be back by Wednesday.
