NEW YORK — Ryan McMahon walked into Yankee Stadium on Friday night without a start. He had five hits all season. All singles. He was hitting .119 with 16 strikeouts. He was, by most measures, one of the worst-performing regulars in the major leagues.
Three hours later, he was the reason the Yankees won.
McMahon came off the Yankees bench, entered as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, and then delivered the hit his team needed most. His tiebreaking two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth gave the Yankees a 4-2 win over the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium. New York improved to 11-9. The Royals dropped to 7-13 and extended their losing streak to five games.
The man nobody expected to deliver
McMahon had not had a single extra-base hit in a Yankees uniform this season before Friday. He had been benched in favor of Amed Rosario, who was starting against right-handers while the Yankees waited for McMahon to find something at the plate.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone had told McMahon heading into the Royals series that his playing time would be limited. The Yankees were about to face multiple left-handed starters against both Kansas City and the Red Sox in Boston. The lefty-hitting McMahon would get more chances against those arms. For now, he was working in the cage.
That is what he did Friday for the Yankees. He hit throughout the first half of the game, grinding alone while Rosario started at third. When Boone put McMahon in for defense in the top of the eighth, it looked like a routine move. The game was tied 2-2 and the Yankees needed a stop, not a spark.
They got both.
After Camilo Doval retired the Royals in order in the top of the eighth following Vinnie Pasquantino’s tying homer, the Yankees came to bat. The top of the order did not produce. Ben Rice kept it alive with a two-out single. Then McMahon stepped in.
On a 2-1 changeup from Royals reliever Alex Lange, McMahon turned on the ball and sent it 372 feet to left field. The wind helped carry it over the fence. It was his sixth hit of the season. It was his first extra-base hit. It was also the most important swing any Yankee had taken in weeks.
McMahon breaks silence after weeks of public struggle
After the Yankees win, Ryan McMahon was asked to describe what he had been going through. He had watched his struggles become a storyline. The numbers were public. The conversations about his benching were public. He spoke with straightforward honesty.
“It’s no secret I’ve been struggling a little bit,” McMahon said. “This game is super humbling. All you can do is keep working.”
He was also asked whether the prolonged slump had changed his mindset going into at-bats. His answer was brief and revealing.
“You want to play,” McMahon said. “It doesn’t feel good letting your brothers down. I’ve been sick and tired of it, honestly.”
Rice powers the Yankees before McMahon takes over
The Yankees scoring started in the fourth inning. Cody Bellinger lined a bloop single to get on base. Two batters later, Ben Rice got hold of a Michael Wacha changeup and drove it over the short porch in right field. It was Rice’s sixth homer of the season and 16th RBI. On a windy night in the Bronx where hard contact was dying in the outfield, Rice’s 103.3 mph launch cut through the conditions.
The Yankees lead held at 2-0 until the sixth, when New York got fortunate that it cost them only one run. Schlittler walked Maikel Garcia with one out. Bobby Witt Jr. then hit a fly ball to deep center. Trent Grisham appeared to have it but the ball caromed off his glove for a two-base error. Garcia advanced to third. Pasquantino grounded out to score Garcia and make it 2-1. Schlittler struck out Salvador Perez to end the threat.
New York went 0-for-5 with RISP and stranded six Yankees baserunners . Aaron Judge had a chance to break the game open in the seventh with two on and two out but grounded to third. The Yankees were unable to push another run across until McMahon’s decisive blow.
Schlittler dominates and Bednar closes it out
Yankees starter Cam Schlittler was sharp from the start. He retired the first 11 Royals batters he faced and did not walk anyone until Maikel Garcia in the sixth. That was his second walk of the entire season.
Schlittler finished with 93 pitches, 63 strikes, six strikeouts, two walks, three hits, and one unearned run across six-plus innings. His ERA dropped to 1.95. The only blemishes on his line were errors, not his own mistakes.
Yankees reliever Brent Headrick handled the seventh after Schlittler’s leadoff walk and single. He struck out Jac Caglianone, got Jonathan India to pop out on a nifty backwards catch by Rice in foul territory, and retired Starling Marte on a soft comebacker despite committing a throwing error on a pickoff attempt.
Doval gave up Pasquantino’s tying homer in the eighth. But after McMahon put New York back in front, David Bednar closed it in the ninth. He issued a leadoff walk but retired the next three batters, striking out two, for his sixth save.
The Yankees have now won their last five games in final at-bat situations in their final at-bat. They have won nine consecutive games against the Royals, including the 2024 ALDS. The Yankees are 15-3 versus Kansas City since the start of that 2024 run.
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