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NEW YORK — Salvador Perez homered leading off the fourth inning to spark a four-run rally against Carlos Rodón, and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night to even their American League Division Series at one game apiece.

Four relievers held New York in check after an inconsistent Cole Ragans lasted four innings. Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson and Maikel Garcia singled in runs for the Royals.

Garcia, moved up from ninth to first in Kansas City’s batting order, had four hits.

Game 3 in the best-of-five playoff series is Wednesday night at Kansas City, the Royals’ first postseason home game since the 2015 World Series.

“It’s basically like a brand-new series when we get to the K,” Ragans said, referring to Kauffman Stadium.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge went 1-for-3 with an infield single and is 1-for-7 with four strikeouts in the series. Kansas City star Bobby Witt Jr., expected to finish second to Judge in AL MVP voting, was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, dropping to 0-for-10 in the series.

All four division series opened 1-1 for the first time since the round started in 1995.

Giancarlo Stanton put the Yankees ahead with an RBI single in the third, but New York went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and is 3-for-19 in the two games.

“They were making their pitches when they needed to,” Judge said. “We’ve got to come through in those situations to kind of break it open.”

Ragans gave up only the one run and three hits, striking out five and walking four. Winning pitcher Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber each followed with a hitless inning before Kris Bubic threw two scoreless innings. Lucas Erceg worked the ninth for his third save this postseason.

Erceg gave up a leadoff homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a two-out single to Jon Berti but retired Gleyber Torres on a grounder to end it with slugger Juan Soto on deck. Chisholm’s homer was the first off Erceg since June 12, when he was still pitching for Oakland.

Perez, at 34 the only remaining Royals player from their 2015 championship team, tied the score when he drove a 2-0 slider into the left-field seats. The nine-time All-Star entered 12-for-26 (.462) with three homers off Rodón, an old AL Central rival when he pitched for the Chicago White Sox.

“He falls behind him, and from there started making some mistakes with his secondary [pitches] just in the heart of the plate,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Yuli Gurriel singled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Pham’s one-out single for a 2-1 lead, prompting cheers from NFL fans at the Kansas City Chiefs’ home game against New Orleans at Arrowhead Stadium. Pham stole second and scored on a two-out single by Hampson.

Garcia greeted Ian Hamilton with an RBI single that put the Royals ahead 4-1.

Rodón, lined up to pitch a potential Game 5, gave up four runs and seven hits in 3⅔ innings with seven strikeouts and no walks. Twenty-four of the 32 home runs he has given up this season have been solo shots.

“Obviously, I want to be better than that — especially how the first three innings went,” Rodón said. “I wouldn’t say I tired out. Just got to be better with those pitches, just more fine with them and get to better spots.”

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Stanton: Could rejoin Yankees when first eligible

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Stanton: Could rejoin Yankees when first eligible

NEW YORK — One day after he took live batting practice, a significant step in his return from the injured list, New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton confirmed Wednesday he could return to the team’s lineup by the end of the month.

Stanton participated in batting practice on the field at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, the first time he has seen live pitching this year after he was shut down with elbow tendinitis in both arms at the beginning of spring training. He saw 10 pitches, hitting a ground ball to shortstop and working a full-count walk in his two plate appearances against right-hander Jake Cousins.

The Yankees moved Stanton from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list last week, pushing his earliest possible return date to May 27. It was a procedural move for New York. The Yankees needed a 40-man roster spot to claim Bryan De La Cruz off waivers, and Stanton was not in line to return before the end of the month.

Stanton, 35, said he expects to go on a rehab assignment. He said he did not have a target date for starting one and didn’t know how long it would last. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Stanton likely won’t need a long rehab assignment because he doesn’t play a position on defense.

“It depends on what kind of arms I get available [for live batting practice sessions],” Stanton said, “and how I feel in those at-bats.”

Stanton, who also took batting practice on the field Wednesday, has taken rounds of injections to address the pain in his elbows and reiterated that he will have to play through pain whenever he returns.

“If I’m out there, I’m good enough to play,” Stanton said, “and there’s no levels of anything else.”

Stanton’s elbow troubles go back to last season; he played through the World Series with the pain, slugging seven home runs in 14 postseason games. But he said he stopped swinging a bat entirely in January because of severe pain in the elbows and didn’t start taking swings again until March. At one point, Stanton said, season-ending surgery was possible, but that was tabled.

“I know when G’s in there, he’s ready to go,” Boone said. “He’s not going to be in there if he doesn’t feel like he can be really productive, so I know when that time comes, when he’s ready to do that, we should be in a good spot.

“And hopefully we’ve done some things, the latter part of the winter and into the spring, that will set him up to be able to physically do it and withstand it. But also understanding he’ll probably deal with some things.”

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Jays’ Scherzer: Thumb ‘felt good’ vs. live hitters

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Jays' Scherzer: Thumb 'felt good' vs. live hitters

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Max Scherzer took what the Toronto Blue Jays hope is a significant step Wednesday in his return from a right thumb injury when he threw to hitters for the first time since going on the injured list in March.

“I thought his stuff was really good,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said before Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels. “Afterward, he said he felt good, so that’s a really good step in the right direction.”

Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner who signed a one-year, $15.5 million deal with Toronto in February, threw 20 pitches. Barring a setback, Schneider said he would repeat the workout but with more pitches over the weekend.

“It felt good,” Scherzer, 40, said. “I’ve gotten all the inflammation out, so I can finally grip the ball again and not blow out my shoulder. But I’m not celebrating this until I’m back starting in a major league game.”

Scherzer has received two cortisone injections to relieve inflammation in the thumb this season. He was transferred to the 60-day injured list earlier this week and is not eligible to be activated until May 29.

He went 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA in nine starts for Texas last season, starting the year on the injured list while recovering from lower back surgery. He said Tuesday that his problematic right thumb, which also affected his 2022 and 2023 seasons, was just as big of an issue in 2024.

“This is what knocked me out in 2023, and [I had it] all of last year,” Scherzer said. “It wasn’t so much the back injury, it was this thumb injury giving me all the fits in the world. I thought I addressed it. I thought I had done all the grip-strength work, but I came into spring training, and it popped back out.”

Scherzer left his debut start with the Blue Jays against Baltimore on March 29 after three innings because of soreness in his right lat muscle. He said after the game that his thumb issue was to blame for that soreness.

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Pimlico demolition, rebuild OK’d for after Preakness

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Pimlico demolition, rebuild OK'd for after Preakness

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A Maryland board approved a $14.3 million contract on Wednesday to begin the demolition and rebuilding of Baltimore’s storied but antiquated Pimlico Race Course, home to the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.

The vote by the three-member Board of Public Works, which includes Gov. Wes Moore, was made 10 days before the 150th Preakness Stakes, which is scheduled for May 17. It will be the last time the annual horse race will be held with the existing structures in place before the track is rebuilt on the same site. The demolition will begin shortly after this year’s race.

“There cannot be a better time to announce the beginning of a transformation that will allow Pimlico to become a year-round hub for economic activity within the Park Heights community,” Moore said of the Baltimore neighborhood and longtime home of the race.

Under the plan, the Preakness will take place in Laurel Park, located just southwest of Baltimore, in 2026 while the new facility is built, before returning to Pimlico in time for the 2027 race.

Craig Thompson, the chair of the Maryland Stadium Authority which is overseeing the design of the new track, said the plan is to make Pimlico the home of Maryland thoroughbred racing. The track will go from hosting about 15 races a year to well over 100, Thompson said.

“This is more than just about a racetrack, as historic and important as it is,” Thompson said. “This is about bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in state investments to Park Heights.”

Thompson also shared a preview of the design plans. They include a new clubhouse with architecture inspired by the Rawlings Conservatory in Baltimore’s Druid Hill park and the original Pimlico Clubhouse, which included a colonnade and rooftop balconies, Thompson said.

Last year, the board approved a deal to transfer ownership of Pimlico from The Stronach Group to the State of Maryland in order to ensure the Preakness remains in Baltimore.

The state has been wrestling with what to do to restore the old racetrack for decades. Aptly nicknamed Old Hilltop, the track opened in 1870. It’s where Man o’ War, Seabiscuit, Secretariat and many others pranced to the winner’s circle.

But its age has long been a concern. In 2019, the Maryland Jockey Club closed off nearly 7,000 grandstand seats, citing the “safety and security of all guests and employees.”

The horse racing industry and other equine industries have been a cornerstone of Maryland agriculture, as well as an integral part of preserving green space.

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