Salvador Perez went four-for-four, but the rest of the Royals couldn’t keep up, especially the bullpen as the Yankees tag Kansas City’ relievers for seven runs in a 10-4 Royals loss Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

Perez opened the scoring with a single in the first that scored Tommy Pham, then added a solo shot to left-center field that made the score 2-0. The Yankees took the lead in the fourth, but Perez’ single in the fifth tied the game up, followed by Hunter Renfroe’s home run in the sixth to make the score 4-3 Royals.

The seventh inning proved costly for Kansas City, as James McArthur failed to record an out, instead allowing Aaron Judge to tie the game with an RBI single, and then Austin Wells to put the Yankees up for good with a three-run home run to right-center field. Chris Stratton gave up three runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach. McArthur blew his seventh save of the year in the loss, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk.

The Royals (79-66) are now 3.5 games behind Cleveland but stay 2.5 games ahead of Minnesota for the second wild card spot. Game two of the series from the Bronx is Tuesday evening, with pregame at 5:30 p.m. and first pitch at 6:05 p.m. on KMMO FM 102.9.