(Photo credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images)

Over six months ago, the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals in a competitive four-game division series en route to their first World Series appearance since 2009.

Both teams hold aspirations of eventually reaching the postseason again. In the early going, the Royals and Yankees are hovering around .500 entering the opener of a three-game series Monday night in New York.

The Yankees started defense of their American League pennant by winning six of their first eight games, hitting 25 homers and scoring 72 runs. Since then, New York is 2-5, has scored 23 runs and hit three homers.

New York has played in mostly cold conditions with several games being played with first-pitch temperatures of 50 degrees or lower. The Yankees split a pair of rainy games with the San Francisco Giants before blowing an early three-run lead and taking a 5-4 setback on Sunday when the weather was in the low 50s.

Aaron Judge reached three times but struck out for the final out. Paul Goldschmidt, JC Escarra and Ben Rice had run-scoring hits before Jazz Chisholm Jr. broke an 0-for-24 skid with a homer in the eighth.

'That's probably the coldest I've ever played in this past week,' Chisholm said. 'But at the end of the day, this is my job, and this is what I get paid to do.'

Chisholm is among several Yankees whose bats have cooled off lately. Cody Bellinger has five hits in his past 30 at-bats, Anthony Volpe is in a 1-for-17 slide and Jasson Dominguez has three hits over his past 19.

The Royals are at .500 for the sixth time this season after getting a 4-2 road victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday. Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer and Maikel Garcia hit a tiebreaking two-run double as part of a three-hit showing.

The Royals lead the AL with a 3.14 ERA after getting 7 2/3 standout innings from Cole Ragans. They will open the series Monday with Seth Lugo (1-1, 3.24 ERA), who has a 13-inning road scoreless streak and was among the best in baseball during road games last season.

'This is a fun group to be a part of, just like last year,' Ragans said. 'We feed off each other and we pull for each other and we push each other to be better than the day before.'

Last season, Lugo went 9-3 with a 2.62 ERA on the road, matching Yankees right-hander Luis Gil and San Diego's Michael King for the most in the majors.

Lugo has not allowed a run in a road game since allowing a homer to Ben Gamel in the third inning in Houston on Aug. 30. He tossed seven innings with 10 strikeouts and held the Yankees to three hits Sept. 10 in New York, and it was among 13 times Lugo completed seven innings last season when he was a 16-game winner.

Lugo last pitched on Wednesday in a 4-0 home loss to the Minnesota Twins, when he allowed two runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The right-hander is 5-2 with a 2.55 ERA in 14 appearances (four starts) against the Yankees. He also allowed two runs in five innings in Game 3 of the Division Series in Kansas City on Oct. 9.

Carlos Carrasco (1-1, 7.71) opens the series for the Yankees, whose ERA from starting pitchers is an MLB-worst 5.40. In Tuesday's 5-0 loss at Detroit, he allowed four runs and six hits, including three homers in 4 1/3 innings.

The veteran right-hander is 12-9 with a 3.95 ERA in 28 career appearances (23 starts) against the Royals.

--Field Level Media