Baseball notes: Royals’ manager wants more fan support

Kansas City Royals Manager Ned Yost pleaded with fans Wednesday to show up for their remaining home games, one night after Alex Gordon’s walk-off homer gave first-place Kansas City a dramatic win over Minnesota that was seen by just 13,847 at Kauffman Stadium.

Yost briefly mentioned the attendance in his postgame remarks, and expanded on his thoughts when he was asked a follow-up question about so many empty seats during a pennant race.

“We’ve been working hard to try to make our fans happy and make our fans proud of us for a lot of years,” Yost said, “and we’d like them to enjoy a night like that.”

Some took Yost’s comments out of context — they thought they were a dig at fans who have suffered for 29 years without a playoff appearance. But the skipper said Wednesday that he wasn’t being critical of fans, rather he was simply asking them to join in the fun.

“The reason I do this job, there’s two reasons: One is I’ve been to the World Series six times. I know that feeling. I know the excitement. I know what goes along with it,” Yost said. “And one of my main things is I want these players to experience that, because it’s very, very important. And the opportunities to do it are far and few between.

“And the other thing is I want the fans to experience that. It’s a special time. It’s been a long time since our fans have been able to enjoy a playoff run.”

Etc.

The New York Yankees have reached a minor league deal with outfielder Chris Young, who played 88 games this season with the Mets. The 30-year-old hit .205 for the Mets before his release this month. He has shown power at times in his career, hitting 32 home runs in 2007 with Arizona, but he’s always struggled to get on base.