KANSAS CITY, Mo. — And the streak goes on.
It comes as little consolation in a year that won’t include the playoffs, but in Game 161, the Yankees at least avoided the ignominy that might have come with being the team that snapped the franchise’s winning season streak.
A 5-2 win over the Royals on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium secured a 31st consecutive winning season for the Yankees (82-79), the third-longest streak all-time in the four major American sports.
In his season debut, Frankie Montas picked up the win by tossing 1 ⅓ scoreless innings in relief of Clarke Schmidt. Montas, a pending free agent who underwent shoulder surgery seven months ago, struck out one, walked one and gave up a pair of hits while throwing 26 pitches.
Montas, who left with runners on second and third with one out in the sixth inning, got an assist from Greg Weissert, who came on and struck out two hitters to escape the jam.
The Yankees got RBI singles from youngsters Oswaldo Cabrera and Everson Pereira to tie the game in the fourth inning before another from Estevan Florial gave them the 3-2 lead in the sixth.
Gleyber Torres later followed with a two-run single.
Schmidt finished his solid season by giving up a pair of runs across four innings. The 27-year-old right-hander finished the year with a 4.64 ERA across a career-high 159 innings.