KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals dropped the first game of the ALDS against the New York Yankees tonight, October 5. A handful of questionable calls from both the umpires and Kansas City's dugout contributed to the loss. The game featured five lead changes, and the series is far from over. The two teams have an incredibly dramatic history, especially in the playoffs, the Royals will be back in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium on Monday for game two. Here's how game one went down: Pitching Matchup Royals: Michael Wacha (13-8, 3.35 ERA) Yankees: Gerrit Cole (8-5, 3.41 ERA) First Inning Michael Massey started the game off for the Royals, hitting the first pitch very deep to Yankees' RF Juan Soto. Bobby Witt Jr. was next up, hitting a similar fly ball to CF Aaron Judge. Pasquantino did the exact same thing, flying out to Judge. The Royals go down one-two-three to start the game. Michael Wacha got the start for the Royals tonight, as Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans started in both games of the team's Wild Card sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. Wacha walked his first batter, 2B Gleyber Torres before Soto came up to bat, who hit a double down the left field line moving Torres to third. Two-on with no outs is not where you want to be when Aaron Judge steps in. However, coming into the game, Judge was just 1-18 against Wacha, and Wacha ended up striking him out. On the very next pitch, 1B Yuli Gurriel fielded a ground from C Austin Wells and sent the ball home to Perez, who tagged Torres out. Two out, Wells at first, Soto at third with Giancarlo Stanton up to bat. Wacha strikes out Stanton for the third out. The Yankees strand two runners at first and third. Inning over, the Royals and Yankees tied 0-0 Second Inning 2015 World Series MVP Salvador Perez stepped in for the Royals to start the second inning. Perez lined a ball into the outfield for a leadoff single. Yuli Gurriel was next up, and drew a walk from Yankees' SP Gerrit Cole on a full count. MJ Melendez up. Melendez hit a well-placed ball into right field, in which Perez was waved home, but easily tagged out by Austin Wells. One out, Tommy Pham up to bat with two on. Pham hit a sacrifice fly to Judge in CF, Gurriel scored, two outs with one on. Kyle Isbel strikes out swinging for the third out. The inning flips over. 3B Jazz Chisholm Jr. flew out to start the inning for the Yankees' batters, SS Anthony Volpe did the same, flying out to Tommy Pham in right field. Two outs, bases empty. 1B Oswaldo Cabrera is struck out by Wacha for a one-two-three inning. Inning over, the Royals up 1-0. Third Inning 3B Maikel Garcia starts off the inning for the Royals, grounding out to SS Anthony Volpe for the first out. The Royals rotation now flips over, Michael Massey is up. Massey hit a grounder through the infield for a single. Bobby Witt Jr. followed Massey with a pop-out to shallow center field. Pasquantino up with one on and two out, but struck out on a checked swing for the final out. The Royals leave Massey hanging at first. Alex Verdugo singled on a line drive to LF MJ Melendez for a leadoff hit with no outs. The Yankees lineup flips over to Gleyber Torres, who smashes a two-run homer into right field with no outs. Juan Soto then came up, grounding out to 2B Massey, right before Aaron Judge flew out to CF Kyle Isbel. Austin Wells then popped out to SS Bobby Witt Jr. for the third out. Inning over, Yankees up 2-1. Fourth Inning Salvador Perez is first up for the Royals in the fourth. He lined out to LF Alex Verdugo for the first out. Gurriel steps in to bat for the Royals, going to work against Cole\, who appears to be settling in as he gets Gurriel down 0-2 quickly. However, Gurriel battled back, drawing a walk from the former Cy Young winner. MJ Melendez up with one out and one on. MJ Melendez hits a two-run homer to right field, putting the Royals back up top. Melendez has a base hit and a home run after seeing just three pitches. Merv swings us ahead! pic.twitter.com/aPevxvzKXs— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) October 5, 2024 Tommy Pham steps in for the Royals and hits a line drive down the left field line for a single. Kyle Isbel steps in now, striking out swinging. Maikel Garcia hits a line-drive single, sending Pham to second. Gerrit Cole is visibly out-of-rhythm, and the pitching coach comes out to the mound, Cole remains, however. Michael Massey up to bat with two on and two out, but flies out on a terrific sliding catch from Alex Verdugo in foul territory for the last out. Stanton will step in first for New York in the bottom of the fourth. Wacha walks him, and Chisholm Jr. comes up to bat. Jazz Chisholm Jr. pops out to Bobby Witt Jr. for the first out. Volpe steps in for the Yankees, taking a first-pitch strike from Wacha before lining out to RF Tommy Pham. Two outs, Stanton at first for switch hitter Oswaldo Cabrera, who hits a base hit to CF Isbel. Thankfully, Stanton was the baserunner and stayed at third, or the Yankees probably would've tied the game on this hit. LHRP Angel Zerpa starts warming up in the Royals' bullpen, while Verdugo comes up to bat for New York, who pops out on the third base line for the final out of a loaded fourth inning. Inning over, the Royals up 3-2. Fifth Inning Witt Jr., who probably would've been the AL MVP this season if not for Judge's big slugging year, will be the first batter of the fifth inning. Witt Jr. hits yet another fly ball to the Yankees outfield for out number one. Pasquantino comes back up with one out, getting up in the count before striking out. Perez follows him up with a center-field fly-out for the final out. The fifth inning flips over on a one-two-three effort from Cole and the Yankees' defense. Torres is up first for the Yankees in the bottom of the fifth. On a full count, Wacha walked him with Soto coming up to bat. Quatraro comes out to the mount, Angel Zerpa comes into the game to relieve Wacha. The righty from Iowa City pitched four innings, giving up two runs on four hits to the slugging Yankees. He struck out three and walked three. Zerpa gets Soto to bite on a 2-0 pitch before going down in the count 3-1. Soto hits a single right back up the middle. Two on base, no one out with Aaron Judge back up to bat. Zerpa walks Judge to load the bases with no outs and goes down 3-0 to the next batter, Austin Wells, walking him as well to tie the game. Zerpa comes out of the game, after pitching John Schreiber will relieve him. Schreiber gets two quick outs on a foul back to the plate, and then another grounder to Gurrield that he sends home for the force out. However, Schreiber dove on the play, and the trainer and Quatraro come out to the mound. Schreiber will remain in the game, taking some practice pitches before Volpe steps in for New York with the bases loaded and two outs. On a full count, Schreiber walks the fourth batter of the inning to hand the Yankees the lead. Oswaldo Cabrera steps in with the bases loaded. Schreiber finally ends the inning with a strikeout, after eight Yankee batters get a chance to score, four of them walked. Michael Lorenzen starts warming up in the Royals' bullpen. The Yankee bullpen remains empty. Inning over, Yankees up 4-3. Sixth Inning Gurriel stepped in first to start the inning for the Royals, hitting a long single to left field. MJ Melendez comes up to bat next, who homered off Cole his last time up. Although there was no bullpen activity, Cole came out of the game. He pitched five innings, allowing three runs with four strikeouts. At this point in the game, he would be the winning decision over Wacha. Tim Hill steps onto the mound to face Melendez. MJ flies out to LF Verdugo for out number one in the sixth. Tommy Pham steps in for the Royals with one out and Gurriel at first. Tommy Pham hits a grounder to SS Anthony Volpe who commits and error trying to throw to second for the double play. Guriel and Pham advance to second and third. Garrett Hampson steps in to pinch-hit for Kyle Isbel to avoid the lefty-lefty at bat. He hits a grounder in between shortstop and the second base bag. Guriel and Pham both score to put the Royals back up again with Maikel Garcia stepping in. Go-ahead Garrett‼️ pic.twitter.com/UC8P2dylwP— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) October 6, 2024 Tim Hill comes off the mound, he'll be replaced by Yankees right-handed reliever Clay Holmes. Garcia hits the first pitch he sees straight to Aaron Judge in centerfield. Two out with one on as the lineup flips over and Massey steps in. Massey hits a slow roller back up into the infield, knocking the glove off Clay Holmes. No play is made, and everyone is safe. Bobby Witt Jr. steps in with runners at first and second. Holmes almost hits Bobby with the first pitch, before he grounds out to Jazz Chisholm at third base. The inning flips over, but the Royals are back on top. Sam Long, a left-handed reliever will come in to start the bottom of the fifth inning for KC. He'll see Verdugo first. Long walks Verdugo on four pitches, putting the tying run at first with no outs. However, Long redeemed himself by coming right back with a strikeout on a high four-seamer to Torres. Now Soto and Judge will come back up to bat. Soto records another hit with a ground ball single. Soto is now 3-4 on the night. Long comes out of the game for Michael Lorenzen, typically a starting pitcher, but has been moved to the RP role following a late-season injury. He'll face Judge first. Lorenzen got lucky on his first pitch, hitting Judge's bat on a pitch the slugger was trying to take. In an 0-2 count, Lorenzen strikes out Judge swinging on a zone-scraping changeup. However, the Yankees evened the ball game back up with a line drive from C Austin Wells to right field, sending Verdugo to the plate. Stanton steps in with two gone and two on, and grounds out to Maikel Garcia at third, who made a great play to throw Stanton out. Inning over, Yankees and Royals tied 5-5. Seventh Inning Pasquantino started off the inning with a high pop-out, Salvy steps in next but grounds out to Chisholm Jr. Yuli Gurriel is the next batter, trying to avoid the one-two-three inning unsuccessfully popping out to the outfield. Lorenzen is back on the mound to try and end the seventh inning, facing Chisholm Jr. first. Chisholm hits a quick liner into right field for one base. Lorenzen then went on to strike out Volpe. Chisholm attempted to steal second and was called safe, Quatraro challenged the play and, upon review, Massey clearly had him out on a bad slide. The umpires didn't overturn the call, however. Lorenzen then struck out Oswaldo Cabrera for the second out of the inning. Two outs for the Royals with a runner at second. The bad call comes back to bite the Royals when Verdugo singles to left field and Chisholm Jr. scores from second. Verdugo takes Chisholm Jr's. spot at second while the Royals look to the bullpen. Lucas Erceg comes into the game early to stop the bleeding, normally he's the ninth-inning pitcher. He's taking on Torres first, Verdugo at second with two outs. Erceg gets the out on a grounder to Garcia at third. Inning over, Yankees lead 6-5. Eighth Inning MJ Melendez is getting the Royals started in the eighth. He grounded out to second baseman Gleyber Torres. Tommy Pham then hit a grounder to Chisholm Jr., who made a great throw to first for the out. Hampson then came back up, getting up 3-0 before a five-pitch walk. The Yankees are now looking to rightly Luke Weaver, who's been lights out recently, to get the last four outs for New York in his playoff debut. It would be the first four-out save for the team since Aroldis Chapman in 2020. Weaver gets the third out of the eighth, striking out Maikel Garcia with Hampson on first. Three outs remain for the Royals as Soto, Judge and Wells are due up. Erceg struck out Soto on a 93 mph corner changeup. Erceg went to work on Judge next, getting up in the count and striking out Judge as well. Judge is now 0-4, striking out three times. Austin Wells steps into the box for the Yankees next. Erceg couldn't complete the perfect inning, walking Wells for KC's eighth walk on the night. He made up for it, however, striking out Stanton to end the inning. New York up 6-5. Ninth Inning Weaver will be back on the mound for the Yankees in the ninth, he'll be facing the top of the Royals lineup, with just a one-run lead. Massey came up to bat 2-4 on the night and struck out on an inside four-seamer from Weaver. Two outs remain for KC as the hitless Witt Jr. steps in. Witt Jr. got up in the count early in the at-bat, before a low fastball was called for a strike and a high foul ball out of play. With a full count, Witt Jr. took a very low fastball that was called for a strike. One out remains for the Royals. Pasquantino came to the plate as Kansas City's last hope but grounded out to first base. The Yankees take game one.