NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Verdugo hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning and saved at least one run with a sliding catch along the left-field line, boosting the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 6-5 on Saturday night in their AL Division Series opener.

New York’s Gleyber Torres and Kansas City’s MJ Melendez hit two-run homers in a back-and-forth game in which the Royals wasted leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 5-4 and the Yankees failed to hold 2-1 and 4-3 margins. It was the first postseason game with five lead changes, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Kansas City pitchers tied their season high with eight walks, forcing in a pair of runs in the fifth inning. The Yankees were just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position before Verdugo lined a single off loser Michael Lorenzen.

Verdugo’s hit scored Jazz Chisholm Jr., who singled leading off and stole second on a play allowed to stand following a video review. Yankees manager Aaron Boone started Verdugo in left over rookie Jasson Domínguez in a defense-influenced decision. Verdugo entered the game in a 2-for-34 skid at the plate

With the Yankees trailing 3-2, Verdugo made a sliding catch on Michael Massey’s fourth-inning fly just inside the line to strand two runners. The ball hit Verdugo’s right wrist just below his glove and bounced off his chest before he grabbed it with his bare left hand.

Chisholm, playing third base this year for the first time after the Yankees acquired him from Miami at the July trade deadline, made three fine defensive plays, two with the help of first baseman Oswaldo Cabrera, starting because of Anthony Rizzo’s fractured fingers.

Four Yankees relievers combined to allow only an unearned run over four innings after ace Gerrit Cole came out, unhappy with his performance. Clay Holmes, dropped from his closer’s job last month, worked 1 2/3 innings for the win. Luke Weaver got four straight outs for the save in his postseason debut.

Yankees star Aaron Judge went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, and Royals standout Bobby Witt Jr. was 0 for 5, barking at plate umpire Adam Hamari after a called third strike in the ninth.

Juan Soto went 3 for 5 and threw out Salvador Perez in the second inning trying to score from second on Melendez’s single to right. Kansas City first baseman Yuli Gurriel threw out runners at the plate on grounders in the first and fifth.

After a day off between Games 1 and 2, the series between the AL-best Yankees and wild-card Royals resumes Monday night. These teams met in four playoffs from 1976-80, with the Yankees winning the first three and getting swept in the last.

Cole allowed four runs — three earned — and seven hits in five-plus innings. Royals starter Michael Wacha gave up three runs, four hits and three walks in four-plus innings.

Tommy Pham hit a second-inning sacrifice fly, and Torres put the Yankees ahead 2-1 in the third with a 339-foot home run just over the right-field short porch.

Melendez’s two-run homer in the fourth gave Kansas City a 3-2 lead, but Royals pitchers issued four seven-pitch walks in the fifth, forcing in runs with walks by Angel Zerpa to Austin Wells and by John Schreiber to Anthony Volpe. The Yankees had not gotten a pair of bases-loaded walks in a postseason game since Bullet Joe Bush and Joe Dugan against the New York Giants’ Rosy Ryan in Game 6 of the 1923 World Series.

Volpe’s throwing error at shortstop set up pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson’s two-run, sixth-inning single through a drawn-in infield that put the Royals ahead 5-4. Wells’ two-out RBI single off Lorenzen tied the score in the bottom half.

UP NEXT

New York’s Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.96 ERA) starts against the Royals’ Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.14) in a matchup of left-handers. Rodón made a pair of postseason appearances for the Chicago White Sox, in relief against Oakland in 2020 and a start against Houston in 2021 which he pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing Carlos Correa’s go-ahead, two-run double. Ragans won the Wild Card Series opener at Baltimore on Tuesday with six scoreless innings of four-hit ball.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed French President Emmanuel Macron and other Western leaders on Saturday who he said had called for an arms embargo on Israel over its airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza. 

“As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side, yet President Macron and other western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them, “Netanyahu said in a statement. 

He continued, “Is Iran imposing an arms embargo on Hezbollah, on the Houthis, on Hamas and on its other proxies? Of course not. This axis of terror stands together, but countries who supposedly oppose this terror axis call for an arms embargo on Israel.”

Netanyahu called their stance a “disgrace,” adding that Israel would win “with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won.”

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He said, “in defending ourselves against this barbarism, Israel is defending civilization against those who seek to impose a dark age of fanaticism on all of us. Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won – for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world.”

Netanyahu noted that Israel is defending itself on seven different fronts, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, terrorists in Judea and Samaria and Iran. 

On Saturday, Macron said France would no longer supply arms to Israel, although the country will continue to send missile defense equipment.

“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron said in an interview, according to Euro News. 

On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said it had raided and dismantled a Hezbollah underground command complex.  (Israeli Defense Forces)

Also on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had raided and dismantled a Hezbollah underground command complex in Lebanon. 

“The troops entered a terror tunnel about 250 meters long, located about 300 meters from the border and not crossing into Israeli territory,” IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.

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He said a kitchenette and rooms that allowed for extended stays underground along with weapons and command rooms were found inside the complex. 

“These compounds were intended to be used by Hezbollah terrorists in an attack on the communities of the Galilee,” he said. “This tunnel did not cross into our territory, and yesterday we destroyed it.”

The Israel Defense Forces dismantle a terror tunnel in Lebanon. (Israel Defense Forces)

The U.S. continues to supply Israel with arms, although President Biden has spoken out against the country’s approach to its war with Gaza where tens of thousands of civilians have died. 

 “I think what he’s doing is a mistake,” Biden said in August, while continuing to call for a cease-fire. “I don’t agree with his approach.” 

This week in a surprise appearance at a White House press briefing, Biden, in answering a reporter, said he wasn’t sure if Netanyahu was holding off on a cease-fire to influence the November election. 

“Whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know – but I’m not counting on that,” Biden said. “No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none, and I think he should remember that.”

The vaccine will first be given to health workers and those with existing health issues.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has launched its first vaccination campaign against mpox in the eastern city of Goma, which was hit the hardest by an outbreak.

Vaccines were first administered to hospital staff on Saturday, with the wider vaccine drive due to start on Monday in the east of the country, where the current outbreak began last year.

On Friday, the DRC Ministry of Public Health warned that the vaccine campaign would be limited due to few resources. So far, only 265,000 doses are available.

“As you can imagine, in a country of 100 million people, we’re not going to solve the problem with 265,000 doses,” Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba told a news conference on Friday.

He added that the aim of the drive was to target priority groups, including those with existing health issues and health workers.

More doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive from France, Japan and the United States.

Last month, US President Joe Biden said Washington plans to donate one million doses of the mpox vaccine to African nations.

World Health Organization’s Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement that the vaccine rollout marks “an important step in limiting the spread of the virus and ensuring the safety of families and communities”.

Since the start of 2024, the DRC has reported more than 30,000 suspected and confirmed cases of mpox, and 900 deaths, the World Health Organization said.

The virus can spread through close contact with an infected person or animal. Once contracted, the virus typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

In August, the WHO declared mpox a public health emergency after discovering a new, more infectious variant, named clade Ib.

According to the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, mpox has been detected in 16 African countries so far this year.

On Friday, the WHO announced that it had approved a PCR test to detect mpox by swabbing skin lesions.

Kamba said the WHO pledged about 4,500 tests for the DRC but did not provide an arrival date.