KANSAS CITY, Mo. — GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium and Yankee Stadium are separated by nearly 1,200 miles, but Kansas City sports fans' minds were in both places Monday night.
That was even true for fans physically at the Chiefs' game.
“Pretty much every other play, it was, ‘Let’s go, Royals,’” running back Samaje Perine said. “I had no idea what was going on. I’m not a baseball guy, but they must have been doing something good, because we heard it.”
Perine wasn't the only one to hear it.
“I feel like we heard, ‘Royals, Royals,’ more than than the Chiefs,” linebacker Drue Tranquill said. “I was like, ‘What the heck? We’re in Arrowhead right now.'"
Such is life during Blue October.
The Kansas City Royals sent their ace, left-hander Cole Ragans, to the mound in hopes of evening the series against the New York Yankees in the best-of-five American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium.
Less than 40 minutes later, the Kansas City Chiefs, one of only two remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL, kicked off against the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football.
It was a roller-coaster few hours for Kansas City sports fans.
7:21 p.m. | Around the time safety Bryan Cook snuffed out the Saints’ first drive with an interception deep down the Chiefs’ sideline, Bobby Witt Jr. strode to the plate with runners on first and second in the third inning at Yankee Stadium.
On the TBS broadcast, Bob Costas was waxing eloquently about Witt’s sterling season.
He quizzed the audience about players all-time with at least 30 home runs, 40 doubles and 10 triples in a season — an exclusive group that, until Witt did it this season, only included Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Nomar Garciaparra.
Witt grounded into a fielder’s choice and Vinnie Pasquantino lined out to right field as Carlos Rodon wriggled out of the jam.
But the Chiefs capitalized on the early turnover with a 10-play, 78-yard touchdown march.
Patrick Mahomes was perfect on the drive, completing all four throws for 46 yards and a 9-yard first-down scramble, while Kareem Hunt racked up 23 yards on five carries, including a 5-yard touchdown plunge for the game’s first points.
7:32 p.m. | Moments after Costas — rather hopefully — called a routine flyout to the warning track in Yankee Stadium’s notoriously shallow right field as if it were a no-doubt upper-deck blast, Chris Jones hurried Derek Carr into a check down that led to a three-and-out on New Orleans’ second drive.
But as the Chiefs’ defense was dominating, Giancarlo Stanton was rifling a liner through Witt at shortstop, driving in Gleyber Torres from second base to break a scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the third inning.
7:38 p.m. | The script quickly flipped for Kansas City fans.
The Chiefs’ second drive fizzled as the familiar offensive-line struggles returned.
Mahomes misfired on both throws as the offense went three-and-out, throwing in a Jawaan Taylor false start to boot.
But Salvy Perez knotted the game with a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning, giving Royals fans a reason to erupt.
7:47 p.m. | For the fourth time in his career, Tommy Pham was traded midseason.
After being shipped out by the New York Mets last season, he helped the Arizona Diamondbacks reach the World Series.
He hopes to do the same thing with the Royals in 2024.
Pham spent the first four months of the season with the Chicago White Sox, who set the MLB record for futility with 121 losses this season.
He was traded to St. Louis at the deadline only to be released and signed by Kansas City.
Playing for his fifth different franchise in the postseason, Pham hit a bullet into the right-center gap, easily driving in Yuli Gurriel from second for a 2-1 lead.
Pham — who also reached the playoffs with St. Louis (2015), Tampa Bay (2019) and San Diego (2020) — later scored on a Garrett Hampson RBI single as the Chiefs marched toward another score late in the first quarter.
7:53 p.m. | With the Chiefs approaching the red zone, the Arrowhead crowd erupted as the Royals’ score — 3-1, at the time — popped up on the end-zone video boards before the start of the second quarter.
Maikel Garcia would make it 4-1 with an RBI single in the Bronx, while Harrison Butker made it 10-0 with a 26-yard field goal.
Everything was going Kansas City’s way.
8:05 p.m. | Ragans started the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff walk, his third base on balls to start an inning in the game.
After Ragans missed badly on the first pitch to Ryan Verdugo, Perez went to the mound as he signaled to the bench to get the bullpen going.
Ragans responded by inducing a grounder to second for a force out then back-to-back lineouts to left field and third base.
Meanwhile, Carr tried to find Shaheed deep again, and this time, the third-year wide receiver from Weber State got behind safety Justin Reid and inside Cook for a 43-yard touchdown as the Saints cut their deficit to 10-7.
Here comes the heartbreak, right?
8:11 p.m. | As Witt struck out again in New York, Chiefs left tackle Wanya Morris limped off the field at Arrowhead.
That meant Kingsley Suamataia, who started the first two games before getting benched, got pressed into action again.
Travis Kelce greeted him with some playful slaps to the shoulder pads.
8:22 p.m. | The Chiefs faced second-and-34 after a botched reverse handoff and a holding penalty put the offense in reverse.
Mahomes connected with JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 12-yard catch and run to make it a “more manageable” third-and-22.
Kelce ran a shallow cross on the next play and Mahomes hit him for a 5-yard gain, but as the future Hall of Fame tight end rambled across the field — and with no chance to sprint his way to a first down — he spied running back Samaje Perine.
Yes, he did it again.
With a rugby-style lateral toward the visiting sideline, Kelce connected with Perine who gained 15 more yards to set up a truly manageable fourth-and-2, which Hunt converted.
The play was reminiscent of a touchdown lateral Kelce threw to Kadarius Toney last December in a loss against Buffalo. That all-time great highlight was negated by a penalty on Toney for lining up offside.
The Chiefs capped the drive with a 34-yard Butker field goal for a 13-7 lead.
8:43 p.m. | Halftime arrived at Arrowhead with the Chiefs in front 16-7 after a Saints three-and-out allowed Butker to tack on a 28-yard field goal.
Moments later, Pham ran down a drive to the warning track by Anthony Volpe to end the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium.
9:21 p.m. | Presumptive MVP Aaron Judge led off the eighth with a hard grounder to third base.
Maikel Garcia made a diving stop and scrambled to his feet, but Judge beat the throw for a single, his first hit of the series.
Around the same time, Mahomes’ throw to Smith-Schuster on a slant in the end zone got deflected to the middle of the field, where former Chiefs defensive tackle Khalen Saunders stabbed the ball from the air and returned it 37 yards to give New Orleans new life.
However, in New York, Witt’s diving stop on another hot shot from Stanton turned into a game-ending double play as the Royals inched within three outs of a 1-1 split in New York.
9:41 p.m. | Jazz Chisholm, whose controversial “stolen base” in Game 1 proved pivotal in New York’s 6-5 win, greeted Royals closer Lucas Erceg with a rainmaking 375-foot home run in the second deck at Yankee Stadium.
Only seconds later, Xavier Worthy answered New Orleans’ touchdown to open the third quarter and restored a two-score lead — 23-13 with 11:56 remaining — with a 3-yard touchdown on an end-around off a direct snap to Travis Kelce.
Meanwhile, Erceg bounced back to induce groundouts to the left side by Vople and Verdugo before Berti singled to bring the tying run to the plate.
Swinging at the first pitch, Torres rolled a 99-mph sinker softly to Witt, who gunned him down to end the game.
9:46 p.m. | Word spread through the Arrowhead crowd that the Royals had won 4-2 in New York, so the crowd roared its approval as pockets of “Let’s go, Royals!” chants broke out.
“The Royals, my hat goes off to [manager] Matt [Quatraro] for the job he did there with his crew, and they got their playoff win against a pretty good Yankee team,” Reid said. “Impressive.”
10:19 p.m. | The fireworks sounded one last time for the night inside Arrowhead after a third straight Mahomes kneel-down to close out a 26-13 win for the Chiefs, who are 5-0 and one of two (Minnesota) remaining unbeaten NFL teams.
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