Yankees 6, Royals 3
NEW YORK -- Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman allowed a run in the ninth inning during his season debut, and New York hit five solo home runs, two by Carlos Beltran, in a 6-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.
After completing his 30-day suspension for an offseason domestic-violence incident, Chapman was activated from the restricted list. He began warming up during the bottom of the eighth and heard cheers from the crowd of 41,243 when he entered the game as the scoreboard highlighted his name with a flame-filled graphic to illustrate his ability to throw fastballs 100 mph.
His first two pitches to Omar Infante were strikes clocked at 100 mph. His next two were out of the strike zone and clocked at 101 mph.
Chapman reached a full count when he threw an 88 mph pitch over catcher Brian McCann's glove but struck out Infante swinging on a 97 mph fastball. The left-hander struck out Cheslor Cuthbert on a 101 mph fastball, then gave up a double to pinch hitter Paulo Orlando and an RBI single to Alcides Escobar.
After Escobar's single, Chapman finished his 17-pitch outing by fielding Lorenzo Cain's soft grounder and accepting handshakes from his teammates.
Before Chapman's debut, the Yankees hit five solo shots off Chris Young (1-5). It was New York's first game with five home runs since Sept. 2, 2015.
McCann went deep to right-center in the first inning.
After Kansas City's Alex Gordon tied the game with a solo homer in the second, Beltran homered in the bottom of the inning to put New York on top for good.
Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks hit back-to-back home runs in the third, and Beltran added his second of the night later in the inning.
Hicks also drove in New York's final run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Yankees right-hander Ivan Nova made the start in place of injured left-hander CC Sabathia and allowed one run and six hits in 4 2/3 innings. Official scoring rules did not allow him to qualify for the win since he did not last five innings.
Four relievers followed Nova, and Kirby Yates (2-0) was awarded the win after throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings.
Young lasted 2 1/3 innings and gave up five runs and six hits. He has allowed 13 home runs this season, and he matched the team record held by Sean O'Sullivan for home runs allowed in a game.
Eric Hosmer homered in the eighth for the Royals, who lost for the 10th time in 12 road games and 10th time in the last 13 games overall.
NOTES: The Royals were in New York for the first time since the World Series and stayed in the same Manhattan hotel. "The memories would be a little bit better if we were playing better," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. ... New York was without CF Jacoby Ellsbury (hip) and 2B Starlin Castro (rib/oblique). Ellsbury jogged on a treadmill but manager Joe Girardi said he is unlikely to play Tuesday while Castro said he could have started Monday. ... To get LHP Aroldis Chapman on the 25-man and 40-man rosters, the Yankees optioned RHP Johnny Barbato to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and transferred Branden Pinder (elbow) to the 60-day disabled list. ... According to MLB.com's Statcast, 3B Eric Hosmer's 447-foot home run Sunday in Cleveland was the longest of his career in the regular season and the longest by a Kansas City hitter this season.