September 12 – Sir Chisholm Jr. takes third base with a single in the bottom of the 11th inning to relieve runner Jon Berti, helping the New York Yankees defeat the Kansas City Royals in the rubber game.
Chisholm, facing a spread infield, hit a line drive to short that shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. stopped with a dive, but runner-up Berti easily beat Witt to third on Juan Soto’s grounder.
It was Chisholm’s first career hit. Soto hit a two-run homer for New York (84-62) and had 100 RBIs for the second consecutive season and for the third time in his career. With the win, the Yankees extended their lead in first place in the AL East to 1 1/2 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles.
Soto joined Aaron Judge (126) as the first to have 100 RBIs in a season since Curtis Granderson, Robinson Canó and Mark Teixeira accomplished the feat in 2011. Marks by Yankees teammates.
Luke Weaver (5-3) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out three batters to give the Yankees the win.
Michael Massie homered and Tommy Pham went 3-for-4 with a walk for Kansas City (80-67), which fell 4 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central first in the district. Kris Bubic (0-1) lost.
Mesi hit his 13th homer of the season from 375 feet to right field off Yankees starter Luis Gil to give Kansas City a 1–0 lead in the fourth inning.
New York took a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning when Soto hit his 39th homer 402 feet to right field and Torres was walked. The hit came after a pitch that caused Soto to bounce and fall to his knees in the middle of the first-base line after fouling the inside of his right ankle. Soto stayed in the game for a few minutes before Royals starter Cole Ragans drove a 2-2 knuckleball deep into the right field stands.
In the seventh inning, Kansas City tied the score at 2–2 with the help of New York reliever Clay Holmes. Kyle Isbell led off with a single, moved to second on Pham’s single, Witt advanced to third on a fly out to right and passed Salvador Perez (Salvador Perez) on a sacrifice fly.
The Royals took a 3–2 lead in the 10th inning when relief homer Dairon Blanco stole third and scored on Jake Cousins’s wild pitch.
The Yankees tied the game in the tenth inning when Osvaldo Cabrera singled to advance runner Anthony Volpe to third and pinch-hitter Austin Way advanced on Austin Wells’ sacrifice fly.
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