About Last Night: Yankees 10, Royals 1

by Derek McAdam

June 12, 2024

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The New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals by a score of 10-1 last night and have improved their record to 48-21 on the season, while the Royals dropped to 39-29. Here’s a rundown of the game.

Quick Stats:

W: Marcus Stroman (6-2): 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 1 K

L: Brady Singer (4-3): 5.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

Home Runs:

NYY: Austin Wells (2), Aaron Judge (25), Giancarlo Stanton (16)

KC: Freddy Fermin (2)

According to YES Network, with last night’s win, the Yankees are now 16-1 against the AL Central this season and have won 14 straight games against them.

Big Story: Similarly to Monday night’s game, it did not take the Yankees long to get on the board. After Anthony Volpe led off the game with a triple and Juan Soto walked, Judge knocked in Volpe with an RBI single to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Stanton then hit into a fielder’s choice to score Soto, increasing the lead to 2-0.

In the 4th, Gleyber Torres knocked in a run with a single to left to make the new Yankee lead 3-0. Wells then busted the game open with a three-run home run, his second of the season, to make the score 6-0.

In the 6th, Oswaldo Cabrera knocked an RBI single into left-center field to extend the Yankee lead to 7-0. In the bottom of the inning, Stroman worked his way into a bases-loaded jam with two outs and was taken out of the game after throwing more than 100 pitches. However, Ron Marinaccio came in relief and struck out Kyle Isbel to keep the Royals off the board.

The Yankees were not done scoring. In the 7th, Judge hit a two-run home run into the left field seats to give the Yankees a 9-0 lead. It was his 25th home run of the season, which leads the Majors. Stanton then followed up with a solo home run of his own, putting the Yankees into the double digits with a 10-0 lead.

However, the Yankee shutout would come to an end in the 8th, when Fermin hit his second home run of the year into the left field seats to make the score 10-1 Yankees. Victor Gonzalez would come on in the 9th to finish out the game and give the Yankees another victory.

Player of the Game: It may seem obvious, but Judge is going to get this award yet again. He is on some kind of tear and even Monday’s off-day didn’t seem to phase him. He’s going to cool off at some point, but we may as well continue to soak this streak in.

Notable Performances: Wells’ home run busted the game open for the Yankees, and he also called a nice game behind the plate. Stroman also gave the Yankees good innings, even though he wasn’t pounding the strike zone.

Better to Forget: Anthony Rizzo sat the past couple of games due to his struggles, and didn’t do much on the offensive side of the plate. However, he did make several nice plays in the field, so I’ll have to give e credit where it's due.

My Take: Following the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in which New York lost two of three, they have found a couple of different methods to winning these first two games against the Royals. In the first game, Judge and Stanton both had off-days and the Yankees resorted to playing small ball to score runs, while also relying on good pitching.

In last night’s game, they took a different strategy: they used a combination of stringing together some hits as well as hitting several home runs. It’s always a good sign to see this team find different ways to win, especially when they’ve been caught in the “home run or bust” mentality for many years.

First things first, Judge is absolutely unbelievable right now. And while he’s leading the league in home runs, he’s finding other ways to knock runs in. It’s hard to believe that six weeks ago, he was hitting below the Mendoza line. It seems as if April was an eternity ago with the months of May and June that he’s had.

Regarding the offense, I also liked how several players got involved in the scoring. All starters also reached base at least once. But the pitching continues to perform so well.

As mentioned above, Stroman wasn’t pounding the strike zone and had a couple of innings where he got into trouble. But Marinaccio came in and got the job done, only allowing a solo home run. Sure, 10 runs should be plenty enough for any team to win a game, but the Yankee pitching has been so good all season and deserves so much credit for the Yankees’ success early on.

Overall, it was a great team win and I look forward to tonight’s game. Hopefully, the Yankees can secure the series win and go for the sweep on Thursday.

What’s Next?: These two teams will be back at it tonight for the third game of the four-game set. Cody Poteet is scheduled to start for the Yankees, and while the Royals don’t have an official pitcher named yet, Daniel Lynch would be the next pitcher in the rotation to take the mound. However, this is still to be determined. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. and will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.