One bad defensive play decided the game.
Last time the Yankees faced James Shields, they lit him up for six runs and three walks. That was fun. Sadly, tonight was a different story. The offense put on a terrible performance following last night's walk-off win. Shields pitched really well, but so did Michael Pineda. The only run of the game scored following an error by Chase Headley, and unfortunately the loss came down to that.
The Yankees were getting no-hit until the fourth inning when Brett Gardner doubled to right field with two outs. Carlos Beltran followed and was hit by a pitch, before Brian McCann ended the inning with a pop out. The team only managed to put together two more hits for the remainder of the game. Chase Headley singled in the bottom of the fifth, to no avail. Gardner also had a shot at a home run in the sixth, but the ball was caught at the wall. Their last chance came in the ninth inning, when Derek Jeter hit a single up the middle. Antoan Richardson came in as a pinch runner, then safely stole second base during Gardner's at-bat. Gardner and Beltran both struck out to end the game.
Pineda went toe-to-toe with Shields, but wound up with the bad luck loss, even though he held the Royals to just three hits. He didn't allow any walks, and he had four strikeouts. The one run of the game scored in the third inning, when Alcides Escobar reached on a two-base fielding error by Headley on a fairly routine play. Nori Aoki then hit an RBI single up the middle off of a slider that Pineda left hanging up. When he did miss tonight, he was leaving pitches up. Other than that, the only other hits he allowed were two singles to Salvador Perez.
Dellin Betances came in to pitch the eighth inning and did a fantastic job, striking out two batters and hitting 100 mph on the radar gun. Not to be outdone, David Robertson pitched a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts of his own. Everyone pitched well tonight, which is just about the only positive that can be taken away. Even if Headley hadn't made the error, the offense still would have needed to do something to win the game.
Maybe they'll have better luck tomorrow. The Yankees will send Brandon McCarthy to the mound at 4:05 pm EST to face Danny Duffy.