The Royals lose a hard-fought Game 3

For the third straight year, the Royals and Yankees played a PLAYOFF baseball game. The appearance on the plate all feels premium and the barrels are really hard to scrape across the plate. The starters were pulled early and then a save, substitutes and finally pinch hitters were brought in to gain a possible advantage. Kansas City had a sellout crowd, with as many as 3,000 standing-room tickets sold at times, and there was hollering, groaning and booing throughout, especially when Jazz Chisholm played.

There were three consecutive 1, 2, 3 half innings to start the game. Yuli Gurriel finally got some runners on base by hitting a double against the left field wall. He got just a touch too far below it, otherwise it would have been gone. Then the Yankees drew first blood in the 4th. Juan Soto led off the inning with a walk, but Lugo got Judge out and Wells struck out. Giancarlo Stanton then hit an RBI double to score Soto. They scored again in the next inning on a sac fly by Soto with the bases loaded and one out.

After two setbacks, the Royals came back in the bottom of the fifth. After two quick outs, Frazier singled and Isbel doubled him while running down the field. Then Massey tripled because Soto passed the ball and missed as he tried to stop Isbel from scoring. That was it for Clarke Schmidt and the Yankees bullpen took over.

Over the next few innings, Clay Holmes, Angel Zerpa, John Schreiber, Sam Long, Brady Singer and Tommy Kahnle maintained the 2-2 tie. Brady Singer hadn't pitched since September 27 and faced Aaron Judge with a runner on and two outs. Judge struck out on ball four, but the first base ump said he swung it and called it.

That was probably a check swing, but I'll accept it.

Kris Bubic entered the game in the 8th inning and the tie was broken.

He got through the rest of the inning without further trouble, but the damage was done. The Yankees kept Kahnle in the game to face Massey, and then Luke Weaver came on for the 5-out save opportunity, starting Bobby Witt Jr.

Bobby Singled and Salvy got him to third place, but the decisive run didn't make it to the finish in the eighth run. And that was it. MJ and Garcia came out early in the 9th and Pham hit a pinch and jumped short. That's it.

It was a hard-fought game, but Stanton's two big hits were just too much for the Royals to overcome.