An unfavorable starting pitching matchup did not hurt the Yankees in a 4-1 win. The Yankees started a reclamation project with Carlos Carrasco, who, with the injury to Marcus Stroman will start at least one more time for the Yankees, against Seth Lugo. Kansas City’s starting pitcher has mastered a multitude of pitches, but it did not matter. With the win, the Yankees improve to 9-7. The Royals are now 8-9. Do you think the Yankees stole this game?
Unfavorable Pitching Matchup Does Not Matter
The starting pitching matchup was unfavorable for the New York Yankees. They started Carrasco, who sported a 7.71 earned run average against Lugo, who has a 3.24 ERA. Lugo has 10 pitches. The Yankees’ bullpen is slightly better than the Royals. Coming into the game, the Yankees’ bullpen had a 3.16 ERA. The Royals, on the other hand, had a 4.13 bullpen ERA. The Yankees’ Bullpen ranks third in the American League.
Lineups Royals Lose Game 1 in Bronx
The Royals had Jonathan India batting first and was the designated hitter. Bobby Witt Jr. played shortstop and batted second. Witt Jr. is excellent. He finished second to Aaron Judge in the American League Most Valuable Player race in 2024. His presence in the lineup for the Royals is unfavorable for the Yankees. Vinnie Pasquantino batted third and paid first base. Salvador Perez was the catcher and batted fourth. Michael Massey played second base and batted fifth. Maikel Garcia was the third baseman and batted sixth. Cavan Biggio was the right fielder and batted seventh. Drew Waters was the right fielder and batted eighth. Kyle Isbel was the center fielder and batted ninth.
For the Yankees Ben Rice led off and was the designated hitter. Judge batted second and played right field. Austin Wells was the catcher batting third. Paul Goldschmidt was the first baseman batting fourth. Jazz Chisholm Jr. batted fifth and was the second baseman. Anthony Volpe batted sixth and played shortstop. Jasson Dominguez played left field and batted seventh. Cody Bellinger batted for him in the 8th inning. Trent Grisham was the center fielder batting eighth. Oswaldo Cabrera was the third baseman and batted ninth.
Scoring Summary: Unfavorable for Yankees
In the third inning, Carrasco, who had pitched well, hung a slider to Witt Jr. He hit a solo home run, making it 1-0 Royals. In the fourth inning, Chisholm Jr. hit his 6th home run of the season, a solo shot, tying the score at 1. The 6th home run tied him for the league lead.
In the fifth inning, Grisham hit another solo home run, his 4th of the year. That gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Then Rice hit his 5th home run of the year, which extended the Yankee lead to 3-1. Then Wells hit a home run, the third Yankee home run of the inning, to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead.
Game Notes
Before the game, Judge was named the Captain of the United States team in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. It was nice at gametime. 60 degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy. Rain was forecast after midnight. Biggio, who played right field for the Royals, is the son of baseball Hall of Famer Craig Biggio.
Carrasco pitched pretty well. The Royals had just one hit through four innings. Though this pitching matchup was unfavorable for the Yankees, it did not work out that way.
Conclusion
The Yankees hit 4 solo him runs, 3 in the 5th inning, and got a surprisingly great effort from Carrasco. He is in the starting rotation because of injuries to Yankee starting pitchers. If he pitches like this, he will stay. He had been killing the Yankees every time his number came up to start, but not this game.
Despite the starting pitching matchup being unfavorable for the Yankees, they won. Tomorrow’s game features Max Fried, the Yankee ace, against Michael Wacha. If Fried pitches even remotely like he did in his last start, the Yankees will win again.
