About Last Night: Royals 5, Yankees 0

By Derek McAdam

September 11, 2024

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The New York Yankees lost the second of a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals by a score of 5-0, sending the series to a rubber game matchup tonight. Here’s a quick recap of last night’s game.

Quick Stats: W: Seth Lugo (16-8): 7 IP, 3 H, 10 K

                     L: Marcus Stroman (10-8): 5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB. 4 K

- Last night’s shutout loss was the Yankees’ eighth of the season.

- Every Yankee struck out at least once last night, with five players striking out twice

The Big Story: The Yankees were looking to win the series after taking the first game Monday night by a score of 10-4. Stroman was starting for the Yankees, in hopes of improving upon his disappointing start last week against the Texas Rangers.

In the 3rd, Bobby Witt Jr. hit an RBI single to score Kyle Isbel and give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Salvador Perez then got a base hit down the left field line to score Witt from first base, extending the Royals’ lead to 2-0.  In the 5th, Perez hit an RBI single into center field to score Isbel and push the Royal lead to 3-0.

As for the Yankees, they struggled to do anything against Lugo. Gleyber Torres led off the game with a bloop single into center field. The Yankees would not record another base runner until the 6th inning, when Torres hit another bloop single into left-center field. Lugo was working fast and efficiently, and the Yankees had no answers.

In the 7th, Tommy Pham hit a solo home run into the left field seats off Mark Leiter, his ninth home run of the season that gave the Royals a 4-0 lead. The following inning, Maikel Garcia hit a sacrifice fly into right field to score pinch runner Dairon Blanco, who stole two bases, to extend the Royals’ lead to 5-0.

Player of the Game: Lugo shut the Yankees down, and at one point retired 15 batters in a row following the single from Torres to lead off the 1st. He worked fast throughout the game, and the Yankees could not keep up with his speedy approach.

Notable Performances: Perez had another solid night at the plate for Kansas City, and Pham also had a couple of hits, including the only home run of the game. As for the Yankees, the only player worth mentioning would be Torres, who had two of the three Yankee hits.

Better to Forget: There are several players I could name, but I’m going to choose the entire Yankee team for this. The bats were cold, the pitching wasn’t good, and it just wasn’t a good night for anyone.

My Take: It seems as if over the past few weeks when I recap the Tuesday games, the Yankees end up losing one way or another. I’m not sure what my current streak is, but it’s at least three games at this point. Maybe I’ve got some bad luck that I’m passing onto the team…

Regarding the game, there were a couple of details that I couldn’t help but notice. First, Lugo pitched an absolutely fantastic game. While he doesn’t have overpowering pitches, the Yankees were late to swing the bat on balls up in the zone and missed on some of his breaking pitches. However, Lugo did a nice job painting the corners, especially against the right-handed batters on full counts.

The Yankees’ 13 strikeouts were also concerning. It was a rare stat line to see all players striking out at least one, but no one more than twice. Typically with that many strikeouts as a team, it would seem certain that someone struck out at least three times. Not the case last night though. Good pitching shuts this team down, and this is going to be an issue in a month or so. They’re going to have to find ways to string some hits together if they want to go on any type of post-season run.

Speaking of pitching, Stroman definitely had a better start than last week’s in Texas, but it still wasn’t anything great. The Yankees are definitely going to need him down the stretch and in the post-season, so hopefully he can improve even more on his next start.

One thing that I had to mention was Leiter. It seems that every time I watch him pitch, he is giving up runs. He has allowed at least one run to cross the plate in five of his last seven appearances, and has seen his ERA jump from 3.83 to 4.67 over the past month. His first few appearances with the Yankees were very encouraging, but he has hit a brick wall and become, arguably, the most unreliable reliever in the bullpen.

Overall, this was an absolutely boring game to watch as a Yankee fan. There was no life at all at Yankee Stadium, simply because the fans were given absolutely nothing to cheer about, and it wasn’t much better watching from home. With the race for the AL East being very tight, the Yankees are in a position to where every game matters. This was a brutal loss, as most losses this month will be.

What’s Next?: The Yankees will try to win the series tonight before the Boston Red Sox come to town. Cole Ragans is scheduled to start for the Royals, while Luis Gil will start for the Yankees. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. and will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.