No pitchers had any earned runs in Thursday night’s game between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees, but it was a throwing error by Royals reliever Lucas Erceg that resulted in a 1-0 loss at Kauffman Stadium on June 12 and sweep by the Yankees.

Erceg made his return to the club in the eighth inning after a injury recovery stint in the minors. After striking out Aaron Judge, a two-out walk to Ben Rice was followed by a Paul Goldschmidt grounder to first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Pasquantino’s throw to Erceg at first was not in time. That allowed Pablo Reyes to take advantage and run for home. Erceg’s throw home to Freddy Fermin was short of the plate, allowing Reyes to score.

The Royals and Yankees each had five hits, as both starting pitchers went 5.2 innings. Seth Lugo allowed two of the Yankee hits, along with three walks while striking out two. Will Warren allowed four Royals hits and a walk but also struck out four. He also got Jac Caglianone to ground into a double play in the second inning to quell an early Royals scoring opportunity, en route to the Royals stranding six runners on base and going oh-for-five with runners in scoring position.

The Yankee sweep at Kauffman Stadium means that the Royals now have a losing record of 34-35, 10.5 games behind Detroit in the AL Central. However, the Royals have just a 2.5 game deficit to the Twins and Tampa Bay for the third wild card spot. The Royals have a chance to snap out of their slide when the Athletics come to town for a weekend series. Michael Wacha gets the start Friday evening at 7:10 p.m., with pregame at 6:30 p.m. on KMMO-FM 102.9.