As Alex Verdugo spent most of the summer being one of the worst qualified hitters in the majors, Aaron Boone continued to stand by his left fielder.
And even after Jasson Dominguez threatened to take Verdugo’s job in September, the Yankees couldn’t quite quit him.
At least in the first game of October, that faith was rewarded.
After Boone landed on Verdugo as his starting left fielder, the veteran delivered two key defensive plays and reached base three times, including the go-ahead single in the seventh inning to lift the Yankees to a 6-5 win over the Royals in Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday night in The Bronx.
Even without Gerrit Cole (five innings, four runs) being dominant or Aaron Judge (0-for-4, walk) coming through in big spots, the Yankees did enough to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series in front of a raucous sellout crowd of 48,790.
A back-and-forth game took its final swing in the seventh inning, when Verdugo stepped to the plate with a man on second base, two outs and reliever Michael Lorenzen on the mound.
Verdugo got a cutter in the zone and laced it the other way to left field, allowing Jazz Chisholm Jr. to race home from second to break a 5-5 tie.
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