Heasley roughed up by the Yankees in his return to the mound for the Kansas City Royals

Jonathan Heasley’s return to the starting rotation for the Kansas City Royals was bumpy and abbreviated.

Heasley had been sidelined with shoulder tendinitis for 17 games, and he made his return against the New York Yankees’ lineup of mashers that began the day leading the majors in scoring, slugging percentage and homers in a ballpark where they tend to feast on opposing pitchers.

Unfortunately for Heasley, he didn’t make it through four full innings before turning the game over to the bullpen. Heasley gave up the first six runs in what became an 8-2 Royals loss in front of an announced 44,081 on Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium.

The Royals (39-62) have now lost five in a row, and they’ll try to avoid being swept in the series on Sunday afternoon.

Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield recorded the 1,000th hit of his career with a double in the third inning.

“I just kind of got off to a slow start,” Heasley said. “I just didn’t execute in the first inning overall with anything really. When I was in the zone, it was middle. Obviously, this lineup is going to make you pay for it. That being said, I’m glad I got out of that inning the way I did. I kind of felt like I limited the damage.”

Heasley (1-6) pitched 3 1/3 innings and allowed six runs (four earned) on six hits, including a pair of home runs, and two walks.

Heasley faced seven batters, gave up two runs on three hits, including a leadoff home run, and threw 33 pitches in the first inning. An inning-ending double play turned by second baseman Merrifield and shortstop Maikel Garcia kept the Yankees (69-33) from extending that frame.

“It’s a tough league to pitch in without fastball command,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “He didn’t have it. He had trouble getting it down. Then he tried to compensate and couldn’t get it back up and got himself into tough counts with some hitters that will make you pay once you get into hitters counts.

“I thought he did a good job of keeping us in the game. That first one could’ve been out of control.”

While the defense helped Heasley through some early struggles, the defense also exacerbated things for him later in the outing.

Heasley ran into the same 6-foot-7, 280-pound roadblock that several other members of the Royals pitching staff did this weekend in Yankees outfielder/designated hitter Aaron Judge. Heasley gave up a two-run homer to Judge with two outs in the second inning.

That put the Royals in a four-run hole.

The Royals chipped away at that deficit with a run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Salvador Perez. Merrifeld registered his 1,000th career hit in that inning, a double that put runners on second and third.

Heasley retired the side in order in the bottom of the third.

Then in the fourth, the Royals pulled within two runs when Michael A. Taylor scored on an RBI single to center field by Garcia. That marked Garcia’s first RBI in the majors.

However, Heasley’s outing ended in the bottom of the fourth when he gave up two unearned runs when Garcia dropped a high pop-up and a potential inning-ending double play fell apart when Merrifield couldn’t handle a throw from third baseman Nicky Lopez.

An RBI single by DJ LeMahieu and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Benintendi drove in those runs for the Yankees as they took a 6-2 lead.

Physically, Heasly was encouraged by the way his body responded during the outing. He felt like he maintained good velocity after it had been down noticeably in his start on July 9, prior to his IL stint.

“Even in the second, the pitch that Judge hit out is what it is,” Heasley said. “It’s kind of a short porch over there and he hits the ball hard. We know it’s going to happen with a guy like that. We’ve seen it.

“I felt like I settled in after the first inning, and I was kind of happy with how I finished. I felt like I was kind of getting better as I went. Like I said, I just got off to a slow start, and that’s really what cost me today.”

The Yankees added another run in the sixth against reliever Josh Staumont after he walked the leadoff batter, committed a balk that advanced the runner to second base then the runner stole third and scored on an errant throw to third by catcher Perez.

The Yankees’ final run came courtesy of a Matt Carpenter homer in the seventh off of Joel Payamps.

Offensive frustrations

First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino (2 for 4) and shortstop Garcia (2 for 4) had two hits apiece for the Royals, while Perez (sacrifice fly) and Garcia drove in their only runs.

Royals rookie Bobby Witt Jr. played for the first time since he left a game last weekend with hamstring tightness. Witt went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts in his first game after having missed five in a row.

“We had chances for our offense to get us right back in there,” Matheny said. “We had a couple opportunities to get guys over, get them in. We didn’t get it done to keep us close.”

The Royals had runners on first and third with one out in the second inning, but Hunter Dozier got caught between home plate and third on a slow roller back to the pitcher.

In the third, they put the first two men on base. However, they were forced to settle for one run on Perez’s sacrifice fly.

In the fourth, they got their other run but had two men on with one out when Lopez (1 for 3, run scored) hit into an inning-ending double play.

Yankees All-Star pitcher Nestor Cortes escaped having allowed two runs on five hits and two walks in five innings.

“We took good at-bats against him before,” Matheny said. “This is a guy that we can get. We had him in spots. I don’t care who we’re facing. We get guys on third base and less than two outs, we gotta figure out a way to make it happen. We get multiple guys in scoring position, we’ve got to figure out a way to make it happen.”

The Royals were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Defensive miscues

The Royals entered the series having committed 19 errors in their previous 22 games — the second most in the majors in that span — and that trend has continued to haunt them in New York.

Through the first three games of the series, they’ve committed four errors, including three on Saturday.

“You make mistakes against good teams, they’re going to make you pay,” Matheny said. “And they made us pay.”

Garcia, called up from Double-A at the start of this series, has committed errors in back-to-back games that cost the Royals runs and extended innings for the Yankees.

Saturday’s dropped fly ball in the fourth inning helped prevent Heasley from getting deeper into the game and cost the Royals a pair of runs.

“Those are plays that we know he has been making,” Matheny said of Garcia. “It’s just a different motor, different mechanics. Those are things we’re just going to have to talk through, teach through. Watching how he goes about it, I think that’s part of his strength though too — just how laid back he is. It’s just when the play isn’t made and you go about that with that kind of rhythm defensively it usually stands out. Unfortunately, it was in a big situation a couple times now.

“Then we had the play at second base, with a veteran player, that normally is made. Those just kind of built up and turned into a big inning.”