You couldn’t have asked for a better start to the road trip last night as the Yankees jumped all over the Royals 10-2 at Kauffman Stadium. Aaron Judge and Austin Wells led an offensive onslaught while Max Fried played stopper following some poor pitching performances against the Red Sox over the weekend. Clarke Schmidt will look to follow up on that performance from the staff ace and help the Yanks get back to their series-winning ways.

Schmidt’s fine-but-not great season is partially due to his regression against lefties, and while franchise face Bobby Witt Jr. isn’t one of those, two of the Royals’ most interesting batters are. First is the red-hot Vinnie Pasquantino, fresh off winning AL Player of the Week. Second is top prospect Jac Caglianone, who has flashed some superstar-level tools at the dish despite hitting into some hard luck so far since his call-up last week. The Royals’ offense is not a particularly strong unit, so perhaps Schmidt, who tangoed with them in last year’s ALDS, can put together a strong performance tonight.

Speaking of lefties, the Yankees will face a premier softpaw on the mound tonight: May’s AL Pitcher of the Month, Kris Bubic. Bubic has picked up the slack in the absence of Cole Ragans, who just returned to the IL with a rotator cuff strain after working his way back from a groin injury. The Stanford product boasts a league-leading 1.43 ERA entering action tonight. Bubic’s fastball is what we might call ‘sneaky-fast’: he only averages about 92 mph on the gun but gets a lot of rising action—that and his above-average extension makes it catch up to you quick. He has two varieties of slider and an excellent changeup as well; the Bombers will have their hands full.

As it happens, the Yankees will send five lefty hitters into action against Bubic this evening. Wells, who drove in five runs last night, is down to the ninth spot in the lineup. Jasson Domínguez will ride the bench as Judge returns to right, Trent Grisham patrols center and Cody Bellinger plays left. Ben Rice will be the designated hitter batting between Paul Goldschmidt and Judge atop the order.

How to watch

Location: Kauffmann Stadium — Kansas City, MO

First pitch: 7:40 pm ET

TV broadcast: Amazon Prime Video, FanDuel Sports Kansas City

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 / Royals Radio Network

Online stream: Amazon Prime Video, MLB.tv (out-of-market)

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.