KANSAS CITY -- For a few seconds, Pablo Reyes had no idea where to go. After slipping between third base and home in a scoreless game during the eighth inning, Reyes slammed on the brakes, initially taking a turn back to third.
That’s when Reyes heard third-base coach Luis Rojas yelling, “Keep going, keep going, keep going.” So after another moment of hesitation, that’s what he did -- breaking for home with the game on the line.
A few chaotic seconds later, Reyes slid head-first into home ahead of a tag that never came from catcher Freddy Fermin, who couldn’t corral the errant throw, as the Yankees took the lead and earned the sweep in an eventual 1-0 victory on Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium.
“Pablo juked him out, I think,” said starter Will Warren, who allowed just four hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
“I think [Reyes] was smiling [once he got back in the dugout] because he was thinking the same thing we were,” Warren said. “ … We were all pumped, I mean, that changed the game. Throwing that punch, that was the first punch all game.”
But that one run didn’t come easy -- or conventionally.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Paul Goldschmidt hit a rocket to first base that clipped off the glove of a leaping Vinnie Pasquantino. The ball trickled to the edge of the dirt and outfield grass, where Pasquantino collected it and fired to pitcher Lucas Erceg, who couldn’t beat Goldschmidt to the bag. When Erceg turned around to spot the runners, he found Reyes in no-man’s land. But he couldn’t catch him.
“I saw Pablo stop halfway and then I was like, ‘Oh, no,’” said manager Aaron Boone. “And then we’re still able to score, so, whew, we’ll take it.”
Reyes’ turn toward third forced Erceg to take a few steps in, unsure where to fire the ball. But by that time, Reyes had made it far enough down the line to pressure Erceg’s throw, eventually scoring the only run of the night without a tag.
“[I] noticed he was kind of stuck out in the middle, so I wanted to get him going in one direction or the other,” Erceg said. “Once he started running toward home, I felt like I didn’t really have time to set my feet. I thought [I] was going to be athletic enough to make that play. But [I] made an errant throw.
“Obviously, now that I think about it, it’s like, ‘Just get rid of the ball.’ Don’t be a hero. Let your teammates pick you up a little bit.”
Reyes’ trip from second to home took just 8.97 seconds, but it felt like an eternity as he shuffled his feet, unsure whether to follow his instincts or the voices behind him screaming to sprint home.
“There is a little bit of panic because it’s later in the game, it’s the eighth inning and you definitely want to score there,” Reyes said through interpreter Marlon Abreu, mentioning that his teammates brought him water and told him to keep breathing after his wild sequence.
“When you lose your balance, now you’re thinking, ‘OK, I got to get to a base and be safe and give us another chance.’ With another opportunity, somebody is going to come up and hopefully bring me in. So that’s what you think, and the [reason for my] reaction there, but the play developed the way it did.”
It was another play that went the Yankees’ way against the Royals, as New York earned the season sweep to secure just the 10th instance in franchise history of a 6-0 mark against a single opponent in a season.
Great defensive plays for the second straight night aided that, including Anthony Volpe’s Derek Jeter-esque jump throw and Reyes’ scoop to Goldschmidt to deny a Royals rally in the seventh. And that’s in addition to New York holding Kansas City to 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position in the three-game series.
But without Aaron Judge – who pinch-hit in the eighth but struck out – in the starting lineup for the first time this season, it was Reyes who made the Yankees’ only run possible with a leadoff single in the eighth.
“Really happy for him. He’s a good player and he can swing the bat, he just hasn’t gotten the opportunities just because guys have been healthy and I’ve leaned on [Oswald] Peraza as that backup with the infield,” Boone said.
“ … He’s always ready. He’s always a supportive teammate, and [I’m] just happy for him to have a really big hand for him in this one.”
Reyes appeared in just his second game since May 30, but the Yankees believe in his ability to help this team win -- no matter how wild he may make it.
“That’s such a hard position to be in, to not play for an extended period of time,” Goldschmidt said. “Just a great job by him tonight. He’s played great defense when we need him. He got that whole inning started with that leadoff hit, and then scoring the run there. It’s going to take all of us to win, and today was a good example of that.”