Verdugo hits go-ahead single as Yankees end regular season with 6-4 win over Pirates

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Verdugo hit a go-ahead, two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning and the New York Yankees ended the regular season with a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Struggling for most of the second half, Verdugo snapped a 4-all tie by hitting a fastball from Carmen Mlodzinski into right field to score Austin Wells and Jasson Domínguez. Wells was hit by a pitch from Colin Holderman (3-6), and Domínguez walked.

Following a walk by Jon Berti, Verdugo delivered his fourth hit in 24 at-bats with the bases loaded. Acquired from Boston in December, Verdugo batted .233 in his first season with the Yankees.

“So many times it’s not the fancy, the sexy, big hits all the time,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s the grinding out at-bats, working a walk, setting the table. Three really good ones there.”

It was Verdugo’s second hit this season and 12th of his career to give his team a lead in the eighth inning or later.

Luke Weaver (7-3) stranded a runner in the eighth and Clay Holmes struck out Oneil Cruz on a sweeper for his 30th save in 43 chances. It was Holmes’ first save since Aug. 30 against St. Louis.

AL East champion New York (94-68) clinched home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs Saturday when Cleveland lost to Houston.

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Verdugo said.

Pittsburgh (76-86) matched its record from last year and finished its sixth straight losing season. The Pirates were 56-54 on Aug. 3 and lost 32 of their final 52 games.

“We have to get better,” manager Derek Shelton said. “The last two teams that we played in terms of the Brewers and the Yankees, they’re doing what we expect to do, and what we need to do and want to do.”

Trent Grisham hit a two-run homer two pitches in and had an RBI single after being a late addition to the Yankees’ lineup. Aaron Judge was scratched shortly before a 91-minute rain delay at the start.

Pitching in the rain, Clarke Schmidt allowed four runs and four hits in four-plus innings in an audition for New York’s postseason rotation — a day after rookie Luis Gil gave up four homers in similar conditions. Boone said neither of those outings will influence who is in the postseason rotation.

“We’re just ultimately trying to make the best decision who we think gives us the best chance in a given situation, in a given start against a given opponent, whatever it may be,” Boone said. “Again I feel like it’s a good decision we have in front of us because both guys are very capable."

Schmidt finished with a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts and made five after missing more than three months with a right lat strain.

“Just really tough out there,” Schmidt said. “At times, you couldn’t really find the mound, the rubber from all the dirt that was covering the mound. It was hard to grip the ball because the rosins were so wet.”

Schmidt exited after walking Bryan Reynolds. Mark Leiter Jr. gave up a tying double to Joey Bart.

Pittsburgh starter Bailey Falter allowed four runs and four hits in three innings.

IN THE SEATS

The Yankees drew 3,309,838 for 79 home dates, a slight increase from 3,269,016 for 80 home dates in 2023 when they won 82 games. New York had 17 sellouts, the third-most at the current Yankee Stadium and their most since having 23 in 2018

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: 1B Anthony Rizzo, who fractured the fourth and fifth fingers on his right hand Saturday, was not put on the injured list and will get treatment. … RHP Jake Cousins (right pectoral strain) threw on back-to-back days before taking Sunday off. He is to throw again Monday, have a bullpen session Tuesday and face hitters Thursday. … INF DJ LeMahieu (right hip impingement) will participate in workouts ahead of the AL Division Series.

UP NEXT

Pirates: Open spring training at the Orioles on Feb. 22 in Sarasota, Florida.

Yankees: RHP Gerrit Cole starts Game 1 of the Division Series on Saturday in the Bronx against Baltimore or Kansas City.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Pittsburgh Pirates Joey Bart runs to first base after hitting a single during the third inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Pittsburgh Pirates Nick Gonzales, left, scores a run during the third inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

New York Yankees Trent Grisham, right celebrates his double home run with teammates at the dougout during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Bailey Falter throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

New York Yankees Trent Grisham, right, celebrates after his two-run home run with Giancarlo Stanton, left, during the first inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

New York Yankees Ben Rice, right, runs to first base after hitting a fly out during the third inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

Kristofferson died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.

McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given. He was 88.

Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote such country and rock ‘n’ roll standards as “Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” "For the Good Times" and "Me and Bobby McGee." Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”

He starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese's 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 “A Star Is Born,” and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s “Blade” in 1998.

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.

"There's no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson," Nelson said at a 2009 BMI award ceremony for Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we're all just going to have to live with that.”

Kristofferson retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage, including a performance with Cash's daughter Rosanne at Nelson's 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again),” a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a longtime live staple for Nelson, another great interpreter of his work.

Nelson and Kristofferson would join forces with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to create the country supergroup “The Highwaymen” starting in the mid-1980s.

Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star and football player in college; received a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England; and flew helicopters as a captain in the U.S. Army but turned down an appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal “Blonde on Blonde” double album.

At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to give him a tape of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said with all respect to Cash, while he did land a helicopter at Cash’s house, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut and he certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter holding a beer.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might not have had a career without Cash.

“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”

One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, “Performing Songwriter,” that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico Fellini film, “La Strada.”

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.

Hits that Kristofferson recorded include “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.

The formation of the Highwaymen, with Nelson, Cash and Jennings, was another pivotal point in his career as a performer.

“I think I was different from the other guys in that I came in it as a fan of all of them,” Kristofferson told the AP in 2005. “I had a respect for them when I was still in the Army. When I went to Nashville they were like major heroes of mine because they were people who took the music seriously. To be not only recorded by them but to be friends with them and to work side by side was just a little unreal. It was like seeing your face on Mount Rushmore.”

The group put out just three albums between 1985 and 1995. Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died a year later. Kristofferson said in 2005 that there was some talk about reforming the group with other artists, such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but Kristofferson said it wouldn’t have been the same.

“When I look back now — I know I hear Willie say it was the best time of his life,” Kristofferson said in 2005. “For me, I wish I was more aware how short of a time it would be. It was several years, but it was still like the blink of an eye. I wish I would have cherished each moment.”

Among the four, only Nelson is now alive.

Kristofferson's sharp-tongued political lyrics sometimes hurt his popularity, especially in the late 1980s. His 1989 album, “Third World Warrior” was focused on Central America and what United States policy had wrought there, but critics and fans weren’t excited about the overtly political songs.

He said during a 1995 interview with the AP he remembered a woman complaining about one of the songs that began with killing babies in the name of freedom.

“And I said, ‘Well, what made you mad — the fact that I was saying it or the fact that we’re doing it? To me, they were getting mad at me ’cause I was telling them what was going on.”

As the son of an Air Force General, he enlisted in the Army in the 1960s because it was expected of him.

“I was in ROTC in college, and it was just taken for granted in my family that I’d do my service,” he said in a 2006 AP interview. “From my background and the generation I came up in, honor and serving your country were just taken for granted. So, later, when you come to question some of the things being done in your name, it was particularly painful.”

Hollywood may have saved his music career. He still got exposure through his film and television appearances even when he couldn’t afford to tour with a full band.

Kristofferson’s first role was in Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie,” in 1971.

He had a fondness for Westerns, and would use his gravelly voice to play attractive, stoic leading men. He was Burstyn's ruggedly handsome love interest in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and a tragic rock star in a rocky relationship with Streisand in “A Star Is Born,” a role echoed by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 remake.

He was the young title outlaw in director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," a truck driver for the same director in 1978’s “Convoy," and a corrupt sheriff in director John Sayles' 1996, “Lone Star.” He also starred in one of Hollywood biggest financial flops, “Heaven’s Gate,” a 1980 Western that ran tens of millions of dollars over budget.

And in a rare appearance in a superhero movie, he played the mentor of Snipes' vampire hunter in “Blade.”

He described in a 2006 AP interview how he got his first acting gigs when he performed in Los Angeles.

“It just happened that my first professional gig was at the Troubadour in L.A. opening for Linda Rondstadt,” Kristofferson said. “Robert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a fantastic review and the concert was held over for a week,” Kristofferson said. “There were a bunch of movie people coming in there, and I started getting film offers with no experience. Of course, I had no experience performing either.”

Hall reported from Nashville. AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rosanne Cash.

FILE - Producer Jon Peters, from left, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson appear at a preview of the film, "A Star is Born," in Dec. 23, 1976, in New York. Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 15, 1995. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Country stars Johnny Cash, left and Kris Kristofferson sing during the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 1983. Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson performs in concert at The American Music Theatre, April 12, 2019, in Lancaster, Pa. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson performs on stage in August 1973. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson performs at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, June 13, 2010, in Manchester, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Actor Kris Kristofferson walks down the red carpet during the premiere for his new movie "Dreamer," Oct. 9, 2005, in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)