Yankees get short start from Carlos Rodon, fall to Royals in ALDS Game 2

A myriad of reasons have kept the Yankees from reaching the World Series since 2009, but one in particular has played an outsized role in those October failures: the lack of hitting, especially with runners in scoring position.

That was masked to a degree in a back-and-forth Game 1 of the Division Series against the Royals, in large part because Kansas City pitchers issued eight walks. But it could not be overcome Monday night, and as a result, the Yankees are not guaranteed another home game this season.

Now they will have to win at least one game at what will be a loud and hostile Kauffman Stadium to keep their season alive.

They mounted little offense against Cole Ragans and four relievers in a 4-2 loss in Game 2 in front of 48,034 at the Stadium. It tied the series at 1-1, with Game 3 on Wednesday night.

“Still feels the same, that we’re going to win it. I don’t think anybody feels any different,” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., whose leadoff homer in the ninth made it 4-2. “We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight. They just got lucky.”

The Yankees, who went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners in Game 1, were 1-for-6 with eight stranded on Monday. They were outhit 11-7 by the Royals, with two of their hits coming in the bottom of the ninth.

“They were making their pitches when they needed to,” said American League MVP favorite Aaron Judge, who is off to another slow October start, going 1-for-7 with an infield hit, two walks and four strikeouts in the first two games (his closest competition for MVP, Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., is 0-for-10 with four strikeouts).

“We got a couple of guys in scoring position and they kind of buckled down and made some tough pitches on us,’’ Judge said, “but we have to come through in those situations to kind of break it open.”

After Chisholm’s homer against Lucas Erceg in the ninth, Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo grounded out before Jon Berti singled to right. With the tying run at the plate and the crowd as loud as it had been all night, Gleyber Torres grounded a first-pitch sinker to short to end it.

Eight Yankees pitchers struck out 15 Royals in Game 2 — with the seven relievers allowing no runs, four hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in 5 1⁄3 innings — but one big inning proved to be the difference.

After striking out five of the first eight batters to face him, Carlos Rodon took a 1-0 lead into the fourth but was charged with four runs as the Royals strung together quality at-bat after quality at-bat. Rodon allowed seven hits, including a tying homer by Salvador Perez, in 3 2⁄3 innings in which he struck out seven.

“There was a point in the fourth where I was trying to do a little more,” Rodon said. “I wanted, obviously, to get some swing-and-miss there. Thinking back to it, just trust the pitch and go attack is the mindset I wish I had and just trusting that slider and whatever pitch was called. Obviously, I want to be better than that, especially how the first three innings went.”

Ragans, who went 11-9 with a 3.14 ERA in the regular season, allowed one run, three hits and four walks in four innings, striking out five. Angel Zerpa, John Schreiber and Kris Bubic kept the Yankees in check until Chisholm’s homer.

The Yankees had a chance to go ahead against Ragans in the first, but a promising start fizzled out. Torres and Juan Soto walked to begin the inning, but Judge and Austin Wells struck out and Stanton grounded out.

Giancarlo Stanton’s two-out RBI single in the third produced a 1-0 lead that did not last long. Perez, familiar with Rodon from their time together in the AL Central (when the pitcher was with the White Sox), blasted a 2-and-0 slider 402 feet over the leftfield wall, improving to 13-for-28 with four homers against Rodon.

Yuli Gurriel flared a single to left and went to second on a wild pitch. Rodon struck out Michael Massey, but Tommy Pham singled to make it 2-1 and stole second. Rodon struck out Hunter Renfroe, but Garrett Hampson roped a full-count slider to left for an RBI single and a 3-1 lead, ending Rodon’s night.

Hampson took second on Verdugo’s ill-advised throw home — he didn’t have a realistic chance at throwing him out, but Chisholm, still learning third base, failed to get in position to cut the throw — and that proved important when Maikel Garcia (four hits) singled off Ian Hamilton to make it 4-1.

“You’ve got to take advantage of opportunities when you get them,” Aaron Boone said. “The good thing is we’re giving ourselves those opportunities. Hopefully the more we can do that, we can break one open at some point.”