Clarke Schmidt made a mistake, and a familiar, dejected murmur spread through the ballpark. Schmidt had served up a three-run home run that put the Yankees in a two-run hole in the top of the fourth inning.

But as the Yankees try to launch a comeback in their season, Billy McKinney led a comeback Friday night.

McKinney responded with a three-run homer of his own in the bottom of the fourth, and both his bat and glove starred in a 5-4, series-opening win over the Royals in front of a sellout crowd of 46,242 in The Bronx.

The outfielder, who had been slumping, made two remarkable catches  and hit his first homer in 15 games, giving the Yankees a lead they held, if narrowly.

“Billy with the big swing I think was settling for us,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees scored all their runs on three homers, following a disastrous three-game sweep in Anaheim earlier in the week in which they scored seven runs total.

The Yankees (51-47) snapped a four-game losing streak and awoke from a nightmarish, 1-5 road trip.

The New York Jets will be featured on the upcoming season of HBO‘s annual NFL training camp series Hard Knocks.

The NFL and NFL Films have selected the New York Jets to serve as this year’s team on Hard Knocks. The cameras will be rolling in full force at the Jets training camp. 

The Jets have been the focus of the off-season, having acquired four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers in a trade with the Green Bay Packers, as well as adding several notable free agents. New York is coming off a 7-10 finish in 2022, having missed the playoffs for the 12th consecutive year, but fielded a young, competitive roster expected to improve in 2023.

The second half of the season has begun, but the Yankees’ offense looked a lot like the one they had in the first half of the season.

After Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run home run in the first inning, the New York Yankees went down quietly in a 7-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

The Yankees (49-43) led 2-0 after two batters, but managed only six hits the rest of the way and drew just one walk all night in Casey’s first game as hitting coach.

Instead it was the Rockies (35-57), owners of the third-worst record in the majors, who delivered the boom. 

Their offense, led by former Yankees assistant hitting coach Hensley Meulens, crushed three home runs — one off starter Carlos Rodon and two more off the bullpen.

The loss, coupled with the Red Sox’s win over the Cubs, moved the Yankees into a last-place tie in the AL East. It’s the first time since 1992 that the Yankees have been tied for last place this late in a season.

“Look, we gotta be better, plain and simple,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So I’m not worried about where we are — it’s all there in front of us. We don’t have to go on some incredible run. We control it. But we all know we gotta play better than we’re playing. We obviously gotta get the offense going.”