Hoooo boy, this was certainly one of the games of all time, one where the New York Yankees decimated the Royals on every side of the ball despite a relatively close 4-1 score. Now, the score didn’t seem all that out of hand, but put it this way: the Yankees hit three home runs in the fifth inning, when at that point the Royals had one (1) hit.
That hit was this one: a delightful Bobby Witt Jr. home run, which Bob got after a hard-won 10-pitch plate appearance. Look at it! It was nice! A wonderful, aesthetically pleasing line drive home run that sent Witt’s wRC+ north of 150 this year. Bob is such a great player.
That little moment of joy was about the only moment of joy Royals fans experienced this particular game. Kansas City batters looked totally outmatched. Now, a few swings were great but ran into some bad luck—Jonathan India twice hit the ball where Statcast gave it .590 and .560 expected batting averages, but both found Yankees gloves. Salvador Perez smashed a line drive with a .550 expected batting average, which also ended up as an out. But that happens sometimes.
The Royals made it interesting in the ninth inning. Witt led off with a hit, and Salvy walked—walked!!!—but Vinnie Pasquantino and Michael Massey popped up on hittable pitches and Maikel Garcia hit into another bad-luck out that would have been a home run if it had some more lift.
For Seth Lugo’s part, he did alright, getting through 6 2⁄3 innings. All four home runs were of the solo variety. But at the end of the day, the Yankees had nine hits and the Royals had two. Of course the Yankees were going to win.
Tonight’s defeat sends the Royals to an 8-9 record. And while the going has been rather rough so far, I would like to take the opportunity to say that the Royals have been traversing a gauntlet so far. They’ve faced the Guardians (92 wins and a playoff spot last year), the Brewers (93 wins and a playoff spot), the Orioles (91 wins and a playoff spot), the Twins (82 wins), the Guardians again, and now the Yankees (94 wins and the reigning AL Champions). After this series, they’ll play the Tigers (86 wins and a playoff spot). That’s the first 23 games of the year against teams with winning records last year, and 19 against playoff teams. Zero games agains teams with a .500 or worse record.
So, yeah, not a great game tonight. But eventually the Royals will face some bad teams.
