Salvador Perez homered leading off the fourth inning to spark a four-run rally against Carlos Rodón, and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night at Yankee Stadium to even their AL Division Series at one game apiece.
Four relievers held New York in check after an inconsistent Cole Ragans lasted four innings.
Yankees star Aaron Judge went 1 for 3 with an infield hit and is 1 for 7 with four strikeouts in the series. Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr., expected to finish second to Judge in AL MVP voting, was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, dropping to 0 for 10 in the series.
Giancarlo Stanton put the Yankees ahead with an RBI single in the third, but New York went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and is 3 for 19 in the two games.
Ragans allowed just the one run and three hits, striking out five and walking four. Lucas Erceg worked the ninth for his third save this postseason.
Erceg gave up a leadoff homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a two-out single to Jon Berti but retired Gleyber Torres on a grounder to end it with Juan Soto on deck.
Perez, the only remaining Royals player from their 2015 World Series championship, tied the score when he drove a 2-0 slider into the left-field seats.
Yuli Gurriel singled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Tommy Pham’s one-out single for a 2-1 lead. Pham stole second and scored on a two-out single by Garrett Hampson.
Maikel Garcia greeted Ian Hamilton with an RBI single that put the Royals up 4-1.