Yankees 6, Royals 2: Martin Prado collected three hits with a pair of doubles and two runs scored in his return to the lineup as host New York knotted the series at one game apiece.

Ichiro Suzuki had two hits and an RBI and Jacoby Ellsbury, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran each drove in a run as the Yankees remained 4 1/2 games behind Seattle for the second wild card. Brandon McCarthy (9-14) allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings to improve to 6-4 since he was acquired in a trade with Arizona.

Kansas City got a bad break when starter Danny Duffy threw only one pitch before leaving with a sore left shoulder, forcing them to bring in Liam Hendriks (1-1), who was charged with four runs - three earned - on seven hits over four innings. Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas each had an RBI for the Royals, who maintained their two-game lead over Detroit atop the AL Central.

New York scored in its first at-bat against Hendriks when Prado doubled and scored on Teixeira's two-out single, but the Royals answered on Gordon's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the third. The Yankees started to pull away in the third when Ellsbury followed John Ryan Murphy's double with a triple and scored on Derek Jeter's sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.

An errant pickoff attempt by catcher Salvador Perez plated a run in the fourth before the Yankees tacked on two more in the fifth against reliever Casey Coleman on Beltran's RBI double and Suzuki's run-scoring single. Kansas City chased McCarthy in the seventh when Josh Willingham led off with a double and scored on Moustakas' sacrifice fly.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Prado (hamstring) was back in the lineup after sitting out three contests and registered multiple hits for the eighth time in 12 games. ... Duffy has held the opposition to a .201 batting average against, the second-lowest in the majors by a left-hander - behind only Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. ... Yankees RHP Masahiro Tanaka, sidelined with a partially torn elbow ligament since early July, threw a 34-pitch bullpen session Saturday and said he is feeling "stronger." ... Retiring Yankees SS Jeter will be honored in special ceremonies prior to Sunday's series finale.