Kansas City Royals at New York Yankees: Series Recap

Game 1: 6/22/21, 7:10 PM (Royals win 6-5)

On a hot Tuesday night in the Bronx in front of 21,130 fans, New York would drop game 1 against the Royals. You would think with Gerrit Cole on the mound this would be a fairly easy win but that was not the case. Cole was very dominant as usual, tossing 7 innings of 2 run ball just for the bullpen to have another blunder. Cole pitched his MLB leading 13th start allowing 2 or fewer runs. Yanks would get on the board quick in the 1st inning with a solo blast from Luke Voit who was just activated off the IL. An inning later, Kyle Higashioka would hit a homer to make it a 2-0 lead. The Royals would tack on a run in the 3rd inning on an RBI groundout by Whit Merrifield and would tie the game in the following inning on a Ryan O’Hearn solo shot. The game would stay tied at 2 until the bottom of the 7th inning, when Voit tripled and Tyler Wade would come in as a pinch runner and score on a wild pitch by Royals pitcher Jake Brentz. Coming into the 8th inning, with a great start by Cole and a usually dominate bullpen would typically mean a win, the Royals had very different plans. Yankee reliever Jonathon Loaisiga would come in the 8th and get 2 easy strikeouts and that’s when he fell apart. Loaisiga allowed 4 runs after striking out 2, all 4 hits were smoked but 2 very questionable defensive plays by 2nd baseman Tyler Wade did not help Loaisiga at all. Jonathon probably given up only 2 runs but got charged with 4 runs and the loss. At the time is was 6-3 Royals, New York would make things very interesting in the bottom of the 8th when DJ LeMahieu would smack a 2-run homer cutting the deficit to 6-5. In the 9th, Yanks had a runner on and nobody out, but some poor at bats late led to a loss. Loaisiga would get the loss for New York while Jake Brentz would get the win for Kansas City.

Game 2: 6/23/21, 7:10 PM (Yankees win 6-5)

Yankees would win a back and forth high intensity game tonight in front of a crowd of just over 25,000 fans. New York sent out Michael King to start this game and he would give the Yanks his usual 4.2 innings of 2 run ball. King was very good in this one although he got off to a rough start giving up 2 in the 1st inning, definitely settled in and gave the Yankees a good enough start. Mike had 1 bad pitch all night that was driven to the seats by Ryan O’Hearn. The game would stay 2-0 Royals until the 4th inning, with 2 men on base Clint Frazier would scorch a double down the right field line tying the game at 2. Frazier hasn’t had a good season but always seems to get a huge hit when the Yanks need it desperately. New York’s bullpen again wasn’t great but this time they got the job done. Chad Green was excellent throwing 2.1 scoreless in relief of Mike King. Carlos Santana would give Kansas City the lead in the 8th inning with a solo shot off Zach Britton. In the bottom of the 8th, Frazier would draw a walk and Rougned Odor would drive him in with a 2-run laser to give the Yanks a 4-3. That homer seemed to ice the game, but yet again the Royals had different plans. Aroldis Chapman would pitch the 9th inning and shockingly blow the save and give up 2 runs, he looked really bad and his fastball command was terrible. New York would come to bat in the bottom of 9th down 1 run, non other then the hottest hitter in baseball Gary Sanchez would come and deliver a game tying solo homer to left field sending the stadium in a frenzy. A batter later, Giancarlo Stanton would scorch a single and get pinch ran for, after a wild pitch that advanced Tyler Wade to 2nd base, Luke Voit would send Yankee fans home with a game winning RBI single. What a win and seems like the Yanks have a lot of confidence over the last week or so. Chapman after blowing a save would wind up with the win while Greg Holland would get the loss for Kansas City.

Game 3: 6/24/21, 1:10 PM (Yankees win 8-1)

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the Bronx in front of 21,350 fans the Yankees would come out with an 8-1 win. Yankee starter Jameson Tallion was finally the pitcher us Yankee fans expected, throwing 6.1 innings of 1 run ball. He was very dominate and in his control of the game all throughout. The Yankee bats were alive and swinging at all costs mashing 13 hits and scoring 8 runs including 3 homers. New York took a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning with a solo right field porch shot by Aaron Judge and an RBI single by Odor. Yanks would continue to score in the 2nd inning courtesy of Judge again with an RBI single. The scoring wouldn’t stop in the 3rd when Luke Voit mashed a solo shot to right field, his 2nd homer off the IL. Royals would tack on their 1 and only run in the 5th from Sebastian Rivero’s RBI double off Tallion. The big blast off the game would come off the bat of Gary Sanchez belting a 3-run bomb to the left field bleachers. Gary is on another planet hitting the ball right now it’s so fun to watch. Nestor Cortes would come in to relief Jameson and throw 2.2 innings of scoreless ball. Tallion would pick up the win for New York and Brad Keller would get the loss for the Royals.

My thoughts:

Great series win, looks like the Yankees found their confidence and have been getting back to their winning ways, winning 7 of the 9 games and creeping into 4 games back of the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays. Seeing this team starting to click is a scary site for other American League foes. It looks like scary hours for the Bronx Bombers.

What’s next?

The Kansas City Royals head to Arlington, Texas to face the awful Texas Rangers in a 3 game series this weekend. Both of those teams are terrible I would advise not to watch any of those games. The Yankees head to Boston to face the 2nd place rival Red Sox. Should be a fun and entertaining series as the last time these 2 met were a few weeks ago in the Bronx when the Red Sox swept New York. New York is hot right now and hopefully they keep it up. Game 1 is Friday night in Boston, Domingo German for New York versus Martin Perez for Boston.