NEW YORK -- A hobbled Juan Soto rose to his feet, staggering as an instrumental track from the ¡°Rocky¡± soundtrack played over the Yankee Stadium speakers. From his vantage point in the first-base dugout, Jazz Chisholm Jr. recognized how this story line was going to conclude.

¡°The way he was looking around, you could see in his eyes, he was about to do something special,¡± Chisholm said.

Soto delivered a dramatic go-ahead home run, flipping his bat in celebration, and there would be more theatrics to come.

Austin Wells extended the game with a pinch-hit RBI in the 10th inning and Chisholm connected for his first career walk-off hit in the 11th as the Yankees defeated the Royals, 4-3, on Wednesday night in the Bronx.

¡°It just takes heart,¡± Chisholm said. ¡°We know we¡¯re not playing to our ability right now. Nobody¡¯s hot right now; Cap [Aaron Judge] cooled off a little bit [15 games without a homer, tying his career-long from 2017]. Soto went into a little rut. But this is how you stay together. This is a championship team, and this is what we do. We grind it out.¡±

Facing left-hander Kris Bubic, Chisholm rapped a hard grounder to shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who made a terrific diving play to snare the ball and threw home wide as pinch-runner Jon Berti dived home with the deciding run.

¡°I was really pleased that he didn¡¯t get too big. He kept it real simple,¡± manager Aaron Boone said. ¡°He got it off the barrel to get it just enough out of the reach of Witt there. Just a real quality at-bat in that situation.¡±

Luke Weaver was credited with the win as the Yanks¡¯ third walk-off victory of the season moved them 1 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Orioles in the American League East race, after Baltimore was walked off by the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

¡°This is a big series win for us against a really good club over there, that threw a lot of good pitching at us,¡± Boone said. ¡°A lot of guys did a lot of really good things tonight in a game where runs were hard to come by.¡±

Chisholm, who also contributed a stellar defensive play that robbed Freddy Fermin of an extra-base hit in the sixth inning, said that the atmosphere was ¡°like a playoff game.¡±

¡°I think it was the eighth inning, we got a strikeout to end the inning and the whole crowd erupted,¡± Chisholm said. ¡°I was wide-eyed, like, ¡®Oh, this is sick.¡¯ Like, it ain¡¯t even October yet. I can¡¯t wait.¡±

Had the calendar been flipped forward a month, Soto¡¯s sixth-inning blast could have been the stuff of legend. Having smashed a Cole Ragans pitch foul into his right ankle, Soto attempted to put weight on his frame and fell in agony as Boone and head athletic trainer Tim Lentych dashed to his aid.

¡°It was a lot of pain, but at the end of the day, I tried to focus on that at-bat,¡± Soto said. ¡°Sometimes when you hit yourself like that, you go away a little bit. I tried to just focus, take my time and go in there and make good contact.¡±

Returning to home plate, Soto fouled off one pitch on a half-swing, then crushed a hanging curve into the right-field seats for his career-high 39th homer. Soto said his bat flip was a result of the pain he still felt as he began his trot.

¡°It¡¯s part of the game; you really get mad when you hit yourself,¡± Soto said. ¡°When you come through like that, it just feels [like there is] a little relief.¡±

Said Boone: ¡°He¡¯s got that theatric thing down pretty good here. I was a little worried if he was going to be able to finish [the at-bat]. In some ways, maybe it locked him in more.¡±

Kansas City struck back in the seventh against Clay Holmes, who is struggling to regain his place in the bullpen pecking order. Salvador Perez¡¯s sacrifice fly tied the game against the right-hander, who was charged with his Major League-leading 12th blown save.

¡°They put some good swings on him,¡± Boone said.

That frustration was washed away by the back-and-forth battle in extras, allowing the Yankees to celebrate a series win to begin their penultimate homestand of the regular season. It may be time to invest in antacids; in Chisholm¡¯s view, there will be many more like nights this on deck in a few short weeks.

¡°I think it¡¯s going to be amazing,¡± Chisholm said. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to go out there and play my heart out every day. I¡¯m going to leave it all out there until we get that ring.¡±