The advantages the Yankees have over the Royals are plentiful, notably how plentiful they are. 

They have a payroll roughly three times larger than that of Kansas City. But what that gives the Yankees is a very top-heavy roster. And so if their most moneyed men are not going to rise to October, then they are playing on a way more even field with the Royals. 

And, indeed, they are now playing on an even field in this Division Series, tied one game apiece. 

In Game 1, the Yankees overcame that Gerrit Cole did not pitch well and Aaron Judge continued not to deliver in October. The Royals walked enough batters, the Yankee chorus members rose up and the instant replay review system really helped the home team. 

But in Game 2, the Yankees asked Carlos Rodon to pitch like the best-paid No. 2 starter in the sport and he was not up to his salary or the moment. Judge struggled more, and so did Juan Soto this time. 

And in this morass of money for nothing, the Yankees fell meekly 4-2 to the Royals and opened a door they certainly did not want to even nudge ajar. 

Home-field advantage is gone and now the Royals have a huge advantage in starting Seth Lugo in Game 3 on Wednesday night against Clarke Schmidt. On Sept. 10, Lugo had the best start in 2024 against the Yankees by Baseball Reference’s game score: seven shutout innings on three hits with no walks and 10 strikeouts. That was in The Bronx. Wednesday will be at Kauffman Stadium, where the Yankees will feel not just an opposing crowd that hasn’t seen a playoff game since 2015, but their own failed Octobers since last winning it all in 2009. 

That postseason A.J. Burnett started five times and had two clunkers, but three huge Game 2 performances in Yankee victories — the first two to help the Yankees seize two-games-to-nothing leads and then in the World Series after CC Sabathia and the Yankees had lost Game 1 at home, Burnett had his most vital start in a generally failed Yankee career. 

I mention Burnett because Rodon from the moment the Yankees signed him to a six-year, $162 million free-agent deal reminded me of a lefty Burnett — great stuff, but real questions if he was overly emotional and could handle New York. Burnett was the type who could have an overpowering effort, yet you looked up at the scoreboard and somehow he had allowed five runs in five innings. 

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Rodon had that kind of Game 2. He came out breathing fire — with his fastball and emotions. And I wonder if he was a marathoner running the first five miles like a sprinter. He struck out the side on 10 pitches in the first inning and whooped it up like he was auditioning for the WWE. 

He threw a first-pitch strike to the first 10 batters he saw and got ahead 0-2 on half of them. And then he threw Ball 1 to six of the final eight hitters he faced — and was behind every one of them at one point in the count. Salvador Perez opened the fourth inning by getting ahead 2-0 and then hit his fourth career homer off Rodon. 

In the next five batters, he was classic Rodon — three hits, two strikeouts and a stolen base. He was out of the game at 3 ²/₃ innings and four runs — seven hits and seven strikeouts. He was good enough to be great and bad enough not to have endurance or success. 

If the Yankees actually do fall behind in this series after facing Lugo, they will try to save their season with Cole, who might have been hit as hard as he ever has in Game 1, and — if it gets to Game 5 — Rodon is lined up to start. 

The Yankees lost Game 2, though they drew five walks in the first five innings, including three to lead off frames, struck out 15 Royals in all and got 5 ¹/₃ shutout relief innings after getting four in Game 1. Rodon was a culprit. But so was the offense. 

Judge came up with two on and no outs in a scoreless first inning for the second straight game and, thus, with a chance to instantly nudge the Royals toward thinking they did not belong in the same ballpark as the Yankees. Instead, he struck out in both games. Judge hit a fly out to the wall, walked and had an infield single the rest of the way, but his biggest at-bat ended in a strikeout. He has whiffed in 33.8 percent of his playoff plate appearances — the second most among anyone with 200 plate appearances. 

Soto walked but struck out twice. Giancarlo Stanton, another big-moneyed Yankee, smashed an RBI grounder off of shortstop Bobby Witt’s Jr.’s glove to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the third before Rodon crumbled in the fourth. Stanton, though, continues to run as if he is carrying the weight of recent Yankee playoff failures on his back. 

And the Yanks sure seemed to be an offense pressing — going 2-for-19 with men on base. Showing again that when one of their big guys does not park a homer or two that their offense is hardly menacing. 

Now, this Division Series moves to the Midwest. Will the Yankees’ big-star, big-salaried players show up to save their season?