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Game 2 of the ALDS did not go according to plan for the New York Yankees. The highest-scoring team in the AL could not manufacture more than two runs, and in the end, the Kansas City Royals tied up the series with a 4-2 win. The Royals did their damage during a fateful fourth inning surge that veteran catcher Salvador Perez kicked off with a solo shot off of Carlos Rodon.
The Yankees should still be the favorite to advance to the ALCS, barring an unforeseen turn of events. But it seems as though the team's Game 2 loss to the Royals is already getting to some of their players' heads. In particular, Jazz Chisholm Jr. wasn't too interested in giving the Royals the credit they deserve for their Game 2 win, as they called them lucky to get away with a win on Monday night.
“It still feels the same, that we're going to win it. I don't feel like anybody feels any different. We're going to go out there and do our thing still, we still don't feel like any team is better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight, so they just got lucky,” Chisholm said, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
There is a fine line to walk between confidence and arrogance, and it seems as though Chisholm is straying too far towards the latter with his latest remark. Chisholm has always been a confident player who can back his words up with electric production on the field and on the plate, but giving the Royals even more bulletin-board material may come back to haunt him and the Yankees.
Indeed, Chisholm was correct in that the Yankees had a few opportunities to score but could not make the most of them. But there is simply no benefit to poking the bear. Only time will tell if the Yankees end up regretting Chisholm's remarks, but it might serve the 26-year-old third baseman best if he doesn't give the Royals more encouragement to pull off an ALDS upset.
Yankees were unfortunate but Royals weren't lucky
As the old adage goes, you create your own luck. The Yankees may not have made the most out of the scoring opportunities that they had in Game 2, but make no mistake about it, the Royals were not lucky to come away with a win on Monday night.
Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity for the Yankees came during the bottom of the first inning. Their first two hitters got on base via walk, setting the stage for the heart of the order, led by Aaron Judge, to deliver. Now, it would be one thing if Judge, Austin Wells, and Giancarlo Stanton got robbed of base hits. However, Judge and Wells struck out, which Cole Ragans deserves plenty of credit for, and then he induced a weak broken-bat groundball from Stanton to end the inning.
Even Jazz Chisholm Jr., who said that the Royals were lucky to win Game 2, grounded out weakly during a golden run-scoring opportunity in the bottom of the third inning.
Meanwhile, the Royals sequenced their hits to perfection. Following Salvador Perez's leadoff home run in the fourth, they came through in three separate RBI opportunities with runners in scoring position.
At the end of the day, the Royals firmly earned this victory. Keeping the Yankees' offense quiet is a tall task, after all.
