'Sick and tired' of losing to Yanks, Royals do something about it

KANSAS CITY -- Alec Marsh sat in the home dugout for the three previous games this week and watched the Yankees flex their power all over the Royals’ pitching staff.

When it was his turn to take the mound, he wanted no part of that.

“Watching what they did to us the last couple of days, I was kind of, like, sick and tired of it,” Marsh said. “I don’t care who we’re playing, who they are. Today, I wanted to go out there and lay everything on the line and give it my all. I’m just really happy we came back and got the ‘W.’”

Behind Marsh’s seven scoreless innings and a signature offensive rally in the ninth, the Royals walked off the Yankees, 4-3, at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday, preventing a sweep and snapping a four-game losing streak.

“The game doesn’t finish until 27 outs,” walk-off hero Maikel Garcia said after roping a two-run double down the third-base line.

In the three games before Thursday, the Yankees scored 25 runs while the Royals scored only eight.

Although it was only three games, the gap between the two teams has seemed fairly significant.

“Talking to some of the guys, it’s been not really eye-opening, just, ‘All right, this is go time,’” reliever Chris Stratton said pregame. “These are the types of teams we’re going to have to play, so we’re going to have to play up to that standard.”

The Royals (40-30) felt like they hadn’t done that this week. No matter how good the Yankees (49-22) are, Kansas City did not execute enough on the mound, at the plate or in the field.

“We’ve learned that there’s no letup at the top of the league,” first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said pregame. “There’s absolutely no letup. They’re a very, very good team. We look at ourselves in that same light. They’ve kind of whooped us around this week, but it doesn’t mean that has to continue.”

On Thursday, it didn’t. Marsh set down the Yankees’ lineup in order in the first inning to mark the first time in seven games the Royals haven’t allowed a first-inning run. He didn’t allow a hit until Juan Soto led off the seventh with a single into right field.

Marsh responded by striking out Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo, then getting a flyout to center field by Gleyber Torres to end the frame.

“I thought we were pitching a lot behind in counts this series, and you do that to any team at the big league level, they’re going to have success against you,” Marsh said. “... Just try to keep them off the basepaths, keep them off-balance and get ahead.”

Mixing it up was key to Marsh’s success, with no better example than what he did to Judge, who struck out three times against the Royals’ starter and four times overall.

In the first inning, Judge swung through a sweeper down and away for strike three. In the fourth inning, Marsh attacked the Yankees’ slugger with all fastballs, knowing that execution was key because Judge isn’t “a guy you want to throw a lot of fastballs to,” Marsh said. He alternated between his four-seam and sinker before Judge struck out on a 96 mph four-seamer.

In the seventh, Marsh battled Judge for seven pitches before getting him with the sweeper again.

“I was trying to throw things that I normally don’t throw in certain counts,” Marsh said. “... I just threw it different every single time I saw him. I didn’t give him the same look.”

After the Yankees scored three runs – one of which was unearned because of second baseman Garrett Hampson’s error – in the eighth inning off John Schreiber, the Royals’ relentlessness showed up again. Drew Waters sparked the rally with an infield single, getting cut up on his forearms because of a headfirst slide into first base.

Kyle Isbel poked a two-strike single into center field to put runners on first and third and set up Garcia’s heroics.

After the Royals celebrated on the field, the first person who greeted them in the clubhouse was manager Matt Quatraro, who was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing with the umpires on a potential obstruction call at second base.

Watching the rest of the game on TV, Quatraro wasn’t surprised that the Royals rallied. With such a day-to-day mentality that has seeped into every part of the clubhouse, the past three games, as brutal as they were, couldn’t have mattered less to Quatraro once Thursday’s game began.

“I never get tired of bragging about the way they go about it,” Quatraro said. “The way they hustle, the way they never quit. It’s inspiring to me to come to work every day and be around these guys.”