Salvador Perez's HR sparks a 4-run fourth inning as the Royals take on the ALDS

NEW YORK — Salvador Perez hit a home run in the fourth inning to spark a four-run rally against Carlos Rodon, and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night to even their American League Division Series one game each.

Four relievers kept New York at bay after Cole Ragans was inconsistent through four innings. Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson and Maikel Garcia singled in runs for the Royals.

Garcia, who moved from ninth to first in Kansas City's batting order, struck out four.

Game 3 in the best-of-five playoff series is Wednesday night in Kansas City, the Royals' first postseason home game since the 2015 World Series.

“It’s basically like a brand new series when we come to the K,” Ragans said, referring to Kauffman Stadium.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge went 1-for-3 with an infield single and is 1-7 with four strikeouts in the series. Kansas City star Bobby Witt Jr., projected to finish second to Judge in the AL MVP voting, was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and fell to 0-10 in the series.

For the first time since the round began in 1995, all four division series opened 1-1.

Giancarlo Stanton gave the Yankees the lead with an RBI single in the third, but New York went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and is 3-for-19 in both games.

“They made their pitches when they needed to,” Judge said. “We have to get through situations like this to somehow break through it.”

Ragans allowed just one run and three hits, striking out five and walking four. Winning pitchers Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber each followed with a hitless inning before Kris Bubic threw two hitless innings. Lucas Erceg scored the ninth goal for his third save of the postseason.

Erceg allowed a leadoff home run to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a two-out single to Jon Berti, but retired Gleyber Torres with a grounder, ending the game with slugger Juan Soto on deck. Chisholm's home run was Erceg's first since June 12, when he was still pitching for Oakland.

Perez, at 34 the only remaining Royals player from the 2015 championship team, evened the score when he fired a 2-0 slider into the left field. The nine-time All-Star hit 12 for 26 (.462) with three home runs off Rodón, an old AL Central rival, while pitching for the Chicago White Sox.

“He falls behind and from there he makes some mistakes with his secondary pitches right in the heart of the plate,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Yuli Gurriel singled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Pham's one-out single for a 2-1 lead, drawing cheers from NFL fans at the Kansas City Chiefs' home game against New Orleans at Arrowhead Stadium . Pham moved to second and scored on a two-out single by Hampson.

Garcia greeted Ian Hamilton with an RBI single that gave the Royals a 4-1 lead.

Rodón, the pitcher for Game 5, gave up four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings, including seven strikeouts and no walks. Twenty-four of the 32 home runs he has allowed this season have been solo shots.

“You just have to be better with these pitches,” Rodón said. “Just deal with them better and get to better places.”