The Yankees’ lineup in 2025 has been fueled in large part by the big inning, and their ability to pile on the runs has been on full display in this series against the Royals. After batting around against Noah Cameron last night, the Yankees did the same against Cy Young threat Kris Bubic with five runs in the second. It was their league-leading 17th time scoring five or more runs in an inning, and together with a scoreless six-inning performance from Clarke Schmidt and another home run from Aaron Judge, the Yankees built a six-run lead which the Royals could only chop in half in the ninth for a 6-3 final.
The Yankees went down in order against Bubic in the first, but things immediately felt different in the second. Cody Bellinger followed up his thousandth career hit last night by ambushing Bubic’s first-pitch fastball for a leadoff triple. Following a… fortunate walk to Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe scored Bellinger on a weak tapper to short, beating out the turn to prevent a double play and earn an RBI.
A second free pass from Bubic set up two on with two out for Austin Wells, fresh off a five-RBI performance last night. The Yankee backstop continued to cruise with a double into the right-center gap, plating Volpe for a 2-0 lead. That advantage quickly doubled when Paul Goldschmidt flipped a single into right to bring DJ LeMahieu and Wells to the dish.
The veteran first baseman showed off his excellent baserunning chops when he took second on the throw home, then aggressively cut third and easily scored when Ben Rice sliced an opposite-field liner to left for their fifth run of the second — and their fourth with two outs. For the second straight evening, the Yanks had batted around at Kauffman Stadium. This time they pulled it off against the league’s ERA leader — said ERA ballooned from 1.43 to a no-longer-league-leading 1.92.
Last year, the Yankees’ lineup showed some struggles against left-handed pitchers. That weakness has become a strength this year. Already the top lineup against southpaws by over forty points of OPS coming in (.840 to Boston’s .799), they grabbed six hits and four walks against one of the toughest lefties in the league. Portside-destroyer Goldschmidt was involved in that rally, but so were Wells and Rice. Aaron Boone has no need to fear the left-on-left matchup.
Meanwhile Clarke Schmidt suffered no such crooked innings, just goose-eggs. He got no small amount of help from his center fielder. First, Grisham made an outstanding diving catch, which was ruled a hit but overturned on a challenge. Grisham then helped Schmidt again in the fourth by throwing out Maikel Garcia trying to stretch a single into a double. This call was also challenged, but stood on review.
Bubic stayed in the game until a one-out walk to Chisholm in the fifth. The Yankees then loaded the bases against reliever Jonathan Bowlan, before LeMahieu lined into a highlight-reel double play. The slick-fielding Garcia started the sparkling twin killing at third by throwing to second from the seat of his pants. After the inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. left the game in another common thread from last night. Last night it was a stiff neck, this time it was tightness in his left groin.
Schmidt finished his night with six scoreless innings, scattering just two hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. The Royals struggled to make solid contact against his stuff tonight, with just three hard-hit balls. The cutter produced plenty of awkward swings and foul balls, and the Royals were no more fortunate against the sweeper and knuckle curve, the latter of which scored four of his seven Ks.
The Yankee captain knows a thing or two about hard-hit balls. Facing Steven Cruz to lead off the seventh inning, Judge slugged a 99-mph fastball to right center field to extend the Yankee lead to 6-0. His 25th homer of 2025 came on a swing very reminiscent of the ones which produced two opposite-field home runs against fastballs on Sunday night.
The Yankees got some dèja vu in the eighth inning courtesy of Grisham. After a one-out double from Jonathan India, Grisham made yet another sliding catch in the eighth inning to rob Bobby Witt Jr., which was, like his catch in the second inning, ruled a hit in real time before being overturned on a challenge. He would have then been able to throw out India for an inning-ending double play, but the umpires allowed India to go back to second since he only took third after seeing the no-catch signal. Fair enough. Fernando Cruz quickly got Garcia to roll over to keep Kansas City off the board. Imagine how differently things might have proceeded in this game if not for replay review.
The Royals finally got off the schneid against Mark Leiter Jr. in the ninth, thanks to a dropped infield popup and a subsequent two-run home run from Salvador Perez. Following an infield hit by Drew Waters, Leiter hurt his own cause by throwing the ball away on a slow roller, scoring Waters all the way from first to cut the Yankee lead in half. That forced Boone’s hand in summoning Devin Williams for the save. Thankfully, Williams cut down Mark Canha with the airbender changeup for the second out, then got India to ground to first to end the late drama.
The Yankees will go for the sweep tomorrow night with Will Warren getting the nod. He’ll face the veteran Seth Lugo with first pitch coming at that same 7:40 time slot, back on YES.