New York Yankees Beat Kansas City Royals 7-0 As Aaron Judge Homers Again
The Yankees scored three runs in the first inning en route to a 7-0 victory. This win caps a sweep of the Royals, whom they have now beaten 339 times. Aaron Judge hit a home run into Monument Park in the first inning, then Ben Rice hit a solo home run. It was his fourth game in a row with a home run.
Cole Ragans was the starting pitcher for the Royals. He used to be very good, but he was not today, and he has not been this season. He came into the game with an earned run average over five. It turns out that playing the Royals was just what the Yanks needed to get right. Do you think the Royals will be able to start winning?
Yankees and Royals Game Summary
The Yankees jumped out to an early lead in this game. Judge hit a first-inning home run for them. Rice hit a home run in the second inning for his fourth consecutive game with a home run. The Yankees led 4-0 after two innings. New York has come into this game 54-18 against Kansas City since 2015.
Trent Grisham hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning. The rout, like yesterday, was on. The score was 7-0, Yankees. This is quickly becoming a horror story for the Kansas City Royals.
Aaron Judge
Clearly, Judge is ready to start games. He has now hit 90 first-inning home runs. He was removed from yesterday’s blowout after seven innings. He has gotten off to a slow start, average-wise; he is hitting in the .240s. However, he has nine home runs. That is good for second in the American League behind Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros. Judge’s teammate, Ben Rice, is now third with eight home runs.
Ben Rice
With his home run in the second inning of this game, Rice now has 8 home runs and 18 runs batted in this season. He was a candidate to break out this year, after finishing in the top 10 for hard-hit balls last season. He scolded the ball all of last year, and batted only .255 with 26 home runs.
He certainly seems set to have a great year; he is off to a good start. It would be important for the Yanks if he could develop into a feared hitter. He may already be. He would add to a batting order that includes Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger. Rice is a left-handed hitter who is hitting more than .350 against left-handed pitchers.
Ryan Weathers
It would be important for the Yankees, maybe as important as the development of Rice, if Weathers could become an effective pitcher. He pitched great today. He lasted 7.1 innings, struck out 8, and only walked one. He gave up only five hits.
When Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon come back to the Yankees, somebody is probably going to have to go to the bullpen. His stuff applies to the bullpen better than some of the other candidates. We will see how it plays out, but there is no question that how Weathers is pitching makes it difficult to take him out of the Yankees’ starting rotation.
Schedule
The Yanks are off tomorrow, after 13 consecutive games; they are attending a team’s awards gala tonight. On Tuesday, they begin a difficult road trip against rival Boston. Then, they travel to take on the two Texas teams: the aforementioned Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. They play three games against each opponent. Then, they begin May.
It is said that one cannot determine if a team is going to make the playoffs until Memorial Day. That is a holiday weekend, the unofficial start of summer, at the end of May.
