– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — Austin Wells was upset about his prior at-bats in Monday night’s game, and he made up for it in a big way in his final turn at the plate. Then he barely remembered what happened afterward.
Wells hit a tie-breaking three-run home run in the seventh inning as the Yankees scored seven unanswered runs to close out a 10-4 come-from-behind victory over the Kansas City Royals in game one of a three-game set between playoff contenders inside Yankee Stadium. Aaron Judge immediately preceded Wells’ blast with a game-tying RBI single, while Alex Verdugo hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to spark the Yankees’ comeback.
Wells, batting behing MVP candidates Juan Soto and Judge, had missed a couple of opportunities to come through with runners on, including grounding out with Soto and Judge on base in the first and hitting into a double play in the fifth after a Judge single. Once again, in the seventh, Judge singled right before Wells, and on a 2-1 pitch from Kansas City reliever James McArthur, the rookie catcher connected on a 404-foot home run into the second deck in right field to give the Yankees a 7-4 lead.
“I was jacked. I blacked out,” Wells said. “I was pissed off about how the prior at-bats in the game had gone. And so it was just kind of a big release of emotion.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Roberto Carlo. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 33 pictures in total.
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