About Last Night: NYY 6, KRC 3

By Ethan Semendinger

June 12th, 2025

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I finally got a night to watch the Yankees! ...or at least I thought I did. Luckily, the Yankees won. Here's my story:

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Clarke Schmidt (3-3, 3.60 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Kris Bubic (5-4, 1.92 ERA)

• Save: Devin Williams (8)

• Home Runs (New York): Aaron Judge (25)

• Home Runs (Kansas City): Salvador Perez (6)

Big Story - Have I ever told you I can't stand games on Amazon Prime?

Take last night for example. I had a long day at work. As we approach the end of the year as teachers, in my district we have finals. Today, were the first two of my classes (of five) that my students were to take their finals. Each final lasts a little over two hours, and then it takes the greater part of that afternoon to grade.

After work, I needed to run some errands, to help start putting stuff together for an upcoming trip, which caused me to sit in a boatload of traffic on my way home. And then my cousin reached out and asked if I'd like to go bowling. (We have summer passes.) Luckily, timing worked out, so I said yes...and I bowled terribly. (Don't ask my score. If you ask, I bowled a 300. I'll never tell what my real score was.)

So, after a long day out of the house, I quickly got dinner prepped and ready for a 7:40 PM start time for the Yankees game.

And as I plopped down on the couch, and turned the TV on, I was met with Paul O'Neill talking about how much the number 21 means to him on the YES Network. That's annoying, but I guess the Yankees are on different station.

Fox 5? Nope. That's just some local news.

ESPN? Nope. They're talking about the NBA.

ESPN2? Also NBA coverage. (Do they cover anything else?)

TNT? My bad, that's now the NHL channel for the Stanley Cup.

Fox Sports? Nope. They were covering the local wiffle ball game two streets over.

PIX11? I don't even think that's a channel anymore.

MLB Network? ...has the Twins game on.

Finally, I realized. EUREKA! The game is on Amazon Prime!

I don't have Amazon Prime!

I guess I'm going to watch this game through MLB Gamecast and highlight clips on Twitter.

Here was the Yankees' line-up to attempt another 10-run night against the Kansas City Royals:

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Player(s) of the Game -

• Clarke Schmidt: 6.0 IP, 2 H's, 0 R, 3 BB's, 7 K's, WIN!

Notable Performances -

• Aaron Judge: 1-4, Run, Solo Home Run, BB, 2 K's

• Paul Goldschmidt: 2-5, Run, 2 RBI's, K

• Trent Grisham: 0-3, BB, K, and THREE GREAT DEFENSIVE PLAYS

• Jazz Chisholm Jr.: 0-1, 2 BB's

• DJ LeMahieu: 1-3, Run, BB

• Brent Headrick: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 1 K

• Fernando Cruz: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 0 K's

• Devin Williams: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 1 K

• Ben Rice: 1-5, RBI, K

• Anthony Volpe: 1-4, Run, Double, RBI, 2 K's

• Cody Bellinger: 1-4, Run, Triple

• Austin Wells: 1-4, Run, Double, RBI

Better to Forget -

• Mark Leiter Jr.: 0.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R (2 ER), 0 BB's, 0 K's

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The Game - Like I said, I watched the game last night through MLB Gamecast and Twitter clips. So, my game summary will be of the same format.

Second Inning:

The Yankees were put down 1-2-3 in the first inning against the then MLB ERA leader Kris Bubic. However, the second inning went much more in the Yankees favor. Cody Bellinger led things off with a triple, Jazz Chisholm walked, and then Anthony Volpe hit an RBI fielder's choice (in which he beat the throw to first to avoid the double play).

Trent Grisham then grounded out, moving Volpe to 2nd, and this set up the Royals with 2 outs. However, it also set up a 2-out rally for the Yankees. DJ LeMahieu worked a walk before Austin Wells hit a hard RBI double to center field, scoring Volpe.

Paul Goldschmidt followed this up with a 2-RBI single, giving the Yankees a 4-0 lead. This was also the point in the game where it became obvious that the Yankees were not afraid of the Royals outfield arms, as Austin Wells was waved home even though the hit was fielded in short right field.

And, then Ben Rice topped off the inning with an RBI single of his own to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead. (Aaron Judge worked a walk, and then both Rice and Judge successfully completed a double-steal, but Bubic did get Cody Bellinger to ground out on his second chance in the inning.)

Multiple Innings:

(A.K.A. It's Time for some Trent Grisham Defensive Highlights)

Would you believe me if I said that the Yankees won 2 challenges last night? Probably. That's not too uncommon.

However, would you believe me if I said both challenges were about overturning catches by the same player? Maybe so.

Now, would you believe that the Royals also lost a challenge because of a different defensive play from that same player? I'd assume you'd think not.

Well, consider yourself wrong. Why? Because Trent Grisham. That's why. Check out the highlight reel he put together:

Aaron Judge:

While the game slowed down a lot after the Yankees 5-run second inning, there were two bright spots left until the ninth.

The first of those? Aaron Judge hit his 25th home run of the season. That brings him back on pace to hit 61. He is truly amazing, and it bears repeating every time he does something great. Heck, he's hitting .394 and it's mid-June!

Anyway, here's his home run:

Clarke Schmidt:

Clarke Schmidt deserved the win tonight (and very late, it looked like that may be in jeopardy). He went a strong 6 innings of scoreless baseball while allowing under a baserunner an inning (2 hits, 3 walks) and he collected 7 strikeouts.

It's nice to have some faith in the rotation.

The Yankees Win!

Like I said, towards the end it got a bit dicey. Mark Leiter Jr. couldn't finish things out smoothly. After allowing a lead-off single, Salvador Perez hit a 2-run homer, and then Leiter allowed an additional two more singles for another run to score (thanks to a throwing error to boot). Luckily, Devin Williams came in for the save and quickly ended the Royals' night.

Yankees Win! 6-3.

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Next Up - The Yankees will play the final game in their road series against the Kansas City Royals tonight, starting at 7:40 EDT. The Yankees are looking for Will Warren (4-3, 5.34 ERA) to lead the team to their first series sweep since seeing the Los Angeles Angels for 3 games (and 3 wins) in late May. Meanwhile, the Royals are likely to send Seth Lugo (3-5, 3.46 ERA) to help stop the bleeding and keep their team close to a .500 record. Game is on YES!