The New York Yankees are white-hot. They have now swept their third consecutive series this season and secured their ninth straight victory Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. After the series with Baltimore, this offense has been clicking and shows no signs of slowing down. Through the series, the Yankees would outscore the Royals 21-6, which immediately indicates a defensive improvement from the Yanks, as in the O’s series, as they would allow eleven fewer runs in this series. A struggling Kansas City team depleted from an injury to Adalberto Mondesi added with the white-hot Yankee offense delivered the perfect recipe for this series to be the next series sweep for the Bronx Bombers.
Friday was a night to remember for the Yankees offense. Anthony Rizzo was one of many Yankees to carry his momentum into the series as he opened up the scoring with a two-run home run in the first inning, driving home DJ LeMahieu. Giancarlo Stanton must have felt jealous because he would hit a solo shot the next at-bat to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Salvador Perez did not want to wait long to get the Royal’s hands in the action, as, in the bottom of the first, he would have an RBI double, driving in Whit Merrifield and cutting the Yankee lead to two. The second inning came and went for the Yankees, but the Royals came back fighting, and Michael A. Taylor would drive Edward Olivares in to cut the Yankee lead once again, now a 3-2 ball game. Things would fall silent for roughly five innings, and the Yankee offense began what would be a long two innings for Kansas City. DJ would have an RBI single to drive in a run courtesy of Isiah Kiner-Falefa, followed by a three-run home run by Aaron Judge, driving in DJ and Kyle Higashioka. Going into the eighth, the Yankees now sat comfortably with a 7-2 lead. A five-run game isn’t comfortable enough for the bombers, so Gleyber Torres introduced himself to this evening longball club, crushing a two-run shot to drive in Joey Gallo and extend the Yankee lead to now 9-2. In a bases-loaded situation shortly after, Kyle Higashioka would send a bases clearing double to the wall, driving in Tim LoCastro, Kiner-Falefa, and Aaron Hicks, extending the lead even further now to a 12-2 ballgame. Unfortunately for Yankee fans who love to see offense, the game had been called after eight innings due to torrential rainfall. The Yankees would walk away victorious, extending their win streak to seven and taking the first game of the series. This was not one of Nestor Cortes’ finer performances, as he would allow eight hits and be charged for both Kansas City runs while only striking out three and walking in no one for five innings. Though Nasty Nestor was hit around in his five-inning appearance, it was enough to help earn him the win. The combination of Johnathan Loaisiga, Chad Green, and Lucas Luetge would hold down the fort after that, not allowing a hit, with two strikeouts and walks apiece.
Going into an intensely windy Saturday evening game, the Royals were looking for retribution following the decimation they suffered the night before. Still, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole was not having it. Through six innings of work, Cole surrendered five hits, no runs, and six strikeouts to earn his second win of the season. Miguel Castro, Clay Holmes, and Aroldis Chapman all came to assist Cole in achieving his victory and locked down the Kansas City offense from that point forward. Castro and Holmes would each earn holds, and closer Aroldis Chapman would earn save number five of the season. The Yankees long ball stayed silent, but that didn’t prevent Kiner-Falefa from having one of his better nights of 2022, driving in two of the three Yankee runs, one coming in the second on a fielder’s choice and the other coming on a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Gleyber Torres would be responsible for the only other Yankee run, as he also would drive a run in via the sac fly, this one coming in the third inning. To this point, The Yankees have now won eight straight and will claim the series, regardless of the outcome Sunday.
Sunday would start the way the Yankees wanted, as Aaron Judge would nearly send a ball to the moon and give the Yanks an early 1-0 lead in the first. In the third, the Royals had enough of the Yankees and took control of the game. A home run from Taylor would tie the game at one apiece. Nicky Lopez would soon score on a wild pitch, and the Royals would claim their first lead of the series, and the score sits now at 2-1. Carlos Santana had decided that wasn’t enough, so he roped a double to the right field to drive in Andrew Benintendi and make it a 3-1 game. The Royals got right back to work in the fourth as Cam Gallagher would lay down a successful sacrifice bunt courtesy of a throwing error at the hands of Yankee third baseman Josh Donaldson. The sac bunt would allow Kyle Isbel to score and extend the lead to 4-1. As the game pulled from the Yankees, Isiah Kiner-Falefa got the Yankee bats jumping with a left-field double, driving in Miguel Andujar to cut the Royal’s lead to 4-2. Shortly after, DJ LeMahieu would give himself an RBI single to send Kiner-Falefa home, and now we have a one-run game. The Yankees would go quiet in the sixth and jump right back on Kansas City pitching in the seventh. Judge would produce another RBI with a ground out to the infield that would allow Kiner-Falefa to score his second run to tie the game. Donaldson would pick up an RBI off a fielder’s choice shortly after to enable Rizzo to go home to take a 5-4 lead. In the ninth, Aaron Judge didn’t feel he was done scoring, so he launched his second home run of the day to right field to make this now a 6-4 ballgame. Aroldis Chapman would be summoned once again for back-to-back days of work and would successfully pick up save number six, and the Yankees would walk away with a come from behind victory. Luis Severino didn’t have his best stuff here and would allow for runs, three of them earned, off seven hits, striking out just four Royals. Clarke Schmidt would eventually pick up the win after his entrance to the game, and along with Luetge, King and Chapman, the Yankee bullpen did what they have done best all season and shut down the opposing offense. The Yankees would sweep their third consecutive series and their ninth straight victory with this win.
This series proved the Yankee’s ability at the plate and on the bump further. If the starters struggle, the bullpen will back them up. And when the going gets tough, and the Yanks are behind, the offense will find a way to make magic happen. If this is the Yankee offense that will stick around for the rest of the season, the Yankee faithful will be in for a treat this season.
