Try it free <\/a><\/p>\nAaron Boone\u2019s group (13-9) completed a 5-2 homestand that began with too many home runs served up against the Angels and ended with nine launched against the Royals (7-15).<\/p>\n
Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Trent Grisham all went deep in the finale to back Ryan Weathers (7 \u00b9\/\u2083 scoreless innings) and inspire some confidence ahead of a nine-game road trip through Boston, Houston and Arlington, Texas. The final tally from three games involving teams from New York and Kansas City: an NFL-like 24-7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we played really well, obviously, this weekend in a lot of facets,\u201d Boone said after the offense broke out in a second straight game, Weathers and Angel Chivilli combined for a shutout and the defense executed a relay to cut down a runner at the plate. \u201cYou want to play clean. You want to feel like you can do different things on a given day to win a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the issues that the Yankees faced just a few days ago was their lack of offensive firepower against lefty pitchers, against whom they owned the majors\u2019 second-worst OPS (.535) entering this weekend.<\/p>\n
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Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) celebrates with New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) after he scores on his solo homer. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
That number has ballooned after they teed off Saturday against Noah Cameron and Sunday against Cole Ragans, southpaws who allowed a combined 14 runs in 8 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully that is something that guys are starting to find their stride a little bit offensively,\u201d said Boone, whose lineup decisions have led to another issue facing the club: Rice has been coming off the bench frequently against lefty pitchers.<\/p>\n
Sunday, what had been metaphorical became literal: Rice leapfrogged a few spots in the order and jumped in front of Judge as the leadoff man against Ragans, the club\u2019s one-two punch batting first and second for the afternoon. They kept punching.<\/p>\n
In the first inning, Rice worked a walk and Judge followed with a first-pitch trip to Monument Park, Judge\u2019s ninth of the season and sixth in eight games. Remember that talk about his slow start? Through 22 games, the Yankees captain is on pace for 66 homers.<\/p>\n
![\"Yankees](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c362979b4b46a7d77048baac87232cd3.jpeg\"\/)
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Yankees pitcher Ryan Weathers (40) pitches in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals Sunday, April 19, 2026 at Yankee Stadium. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
After showing off their power, the Yankees used patience to score again in the frame, three walks and an Austin Wells sacrifice fly adding a third run against Ragans.<\/p>\n
An inning later, it was Rice\u2019s turn to do damage against a lefty and further force his way into the everyday starting lineup, turning on an inside fastball from Ragans and visiting the short porch for a solo shot. He has swatted four dingers in as many games and is up to eight on the season.<\/p>\n
Judge\u2019s and Rice\u2019s 17 combined home runs are the most by any duo in the sport, one more than the entire Mets team (16) and four more than the Red Sox (13), whom the Yankees will see beginning Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Yankees notched just seven hits Sunday, but three left the park \u2014 Grisham ended the scoring with a three-run shot to the second deck in right in the fifth \u2014 and they created traffic with 10 walks.<\/p>\n
Weathers bounced back from a five-inning, four-homer outing against the Angels and limited the Royals to five hits and one walk with eight strikeouts while pitching into the eighth inning.<\/p>\n
He was dominant, and the defense behind him crisp, including a sixth-inning relay from Trent Grisham to Jos\u00e9 Caballero to Austin Wells to nail Elias D\u00edaz by several steps to preserve the shutout.<\/p>\n
Against the Royals, the lefty Weathers and the whole team looked right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a big series for us,\u201d said Judge, who praised a young Royals team that has gotten off to a poor start. \u201cTo be able to come out there and put up some big runs, especially the last two games, was huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) celebrates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[1797,106,11477,1217,5,731,141,230,4703,139,1965,2123,55,101,4,1690,62,2548,2547,1357,89,1073,5317,2122,122,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-679603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-aaron-boone","9":"tag-aaron-judge","10":"tag-angel-chivilli","11":"tag-austin-wells","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-ben-rice","14":"tag-boston","15":"tag-cole-ragans","16":"tag-elias-diaz","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-jose-caballero","19":"tag-kansas-city","20":"tag-kansas-city-royals","21":"tag-mets","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-new-york","24":"tag-new-york-yankees","25":"tag-newyork","26":"tag-newyorkyankees","27":"tag-noah-cameron","28":"tag-red-sox","29":"tag-ryan-weathers","30":"tag-the-angels","31":"tag-the-royals","32":"tag-trent-grisham","33":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116435403603093478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d6d11c8da1a6d87f4a13f569a1d29ce5.jpeg\"\/)
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