O Yankees scored in the first inning and led the entire game, defeating the Kansas City Royals 4-2 on Monday night.
Here are some lessons…
– In his first at-bat after a three-game absence, Juan Soto chose middle against Royals starter Seth Lugo. He then advanced to second place Gleyber Torres‘single and appeared to score Alex Verdugo‘s single to left, giving the Yanks an early 1-0 lead. DJ Le Mahieu threw a perfect sacrifice bunt for Torres to score and go up 2-0.
– Carlos Rodon went through the first three innings without allowing a hit. Rodon received help from the right defender Jahmai Jones, which kept the rallying Royals against the wall to end the third inning. The lefty needed just six pitches to get through the KC order in the fourth thanks to a flyout and two groundouts.
– José Trevino made it a 4-0 game with his second hit of the night in the fourth inning, this time a two-out single to center, hitting LeMahieu and Trent Grisham. New York was close to adding more people to the roster, but Antonio Volpe flew to the right with runners in the corners to end the scoring chance.
– Rodon’s no-no was broken in the top of the fifth when he allowed a leadoff single to Nelson Velázquez and a unique internal field for Nick Loftin. He then worked around some trouble, getting into a double play and a flyout to end the inning.
He gave up two singles in the bottom of the seventh and had Freddy Fermin until his last hit with two outs but missed one to center as the Royals got on the board to make the game 4-1. After a visit to the mountain, Rodon managed to MJ Meléndez land second to stop the damage. He finished after seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits with three strikeouts on 103 pitches.
– Ian Hamilton came in to pitch the eighth inning and dropped a two-out, RBI-double for Bobby Whit Jr. to make it a 4-2 game. The reliver attacked Salvador Pérez to keep the leadership intact. Michael Tonkin replaced Hamilton in the ninth and got his first save of the year after 17 pitches.
Game MVP: Carlos Rodon
The lefty improved to 9-2 on the season and lowered his ERA to 2.93. Since allowing six runs in a May 2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, Rodon has gone 7-0 and pitched to a 2.28 ERA and 0.85 WHIP.
Highlights
Next schedule
The Yankees continue a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday at 8:10 p.m.
Marcus Stroman (5-2, 3.04 ERA) will start for NY and face RHP Singer Brady (4-2, 2.76 ERA) for KC.
