NEW YORK -- The Royals’ pitching got them through two tight one-run games in Baltimore during the American League Wild Card Series, but Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees was a wacky back-and-forth affair that featured five lead changes and ended with the Royals on the wrong side in their 6-5 loss to the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

In all best-of-five postseason series, the team that wins Game 1 has gone on to take the series 109 of 152 times (72%). In Division Series under the current 2-2-1 format, teams winning Game 1 at home have advanced 37 of 51 times (73%).

The Royals took the first lead of the game in the second inning on Tommy Pham’s sacrifice fly, one of many good swings the Royals had against Yankees righty Gerrit Cole on Saturday. They chased New York’s ace after five-plus innings, scoring four runs off him, including MJ Melendez’s two-run homer to the short porch in right field in the fourth inning.

For all of the Royals’ resilience through Saturday’s game, the Yankees matched it. Gleyber Torres’ two-run homer in the third inning -- another Yankee Stadium special, projected by Statcast at 339 feet -- was the only damage against Royals starter Michael Wacha through four innings.

But Wacha walked Torres to lead off the fifth, and manager Matt Quatraro pulled him at just 70 pitches with lefty Juan Soto and Aaron Judge coming up in the heart of the Yankees’ lineup.

The Royals’ bullpen has been a huge reason the club is still playing at this point in October, helping win tight games the final week of the season and throwing 7 2/3 scoreless innings in the AL Wild Card Series against Baltimore.

Lefty Angel Zerpa was a huge part of the Royals’ Game 2 win in that series. But the move to him after Wacha did not work out Saturday.

• Full roster for Royals in ALDS

Soto singled up the middle, Judge walked to load the bases and Austin Wells walked in the tying run. John Schreiber got out of the inning for the Royals, but not before walking in the go-ahead run as part of the Yankees’ two-run inning with just one hit allowed.

The Royals responded in the top of the fifth, when Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe’s error put runners on second and third with one out, and Garrett Hampson’s pinch-hit chopper got through a drawn-in infield for a two-run go-ahead single.

“[The] offense was good,” Melendez said. “We did what we could. Would have been nice to scratch off one or two more, but I feel like we had good at-bats, and [it’s] something that is good momentum for us going forward.”

But the bullpen collapse continued in the bottom of the frame, when Sam Long walked Alex Verdugo and Soto singled to put runners on first and second with one out. Wells knocked the game-tying single against reliever Michael Lorenzen, who also allowed the final go-ahead run in the seventh, when Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and stole second.

Seeing a near-perfect tag from second baseman Michael Massey on Chisholm’s foot, the Royals challenged the call, but it stood after a lengthy review. Chisholm scored moments later on Verdugo’s line drive to left field.

“I got a really good look at it out there and afterwards, and I think we did have a really good argument that that should have been overturned,” Quatraro said.

The Royals issued eight walks on Saturday night and now will be playing from behind on Monday night in Game 2, but they’ll have their ace on the mound in lefty Cole Ragans.