About Last Night: Yanks 4, Royals 2

By Andy Singer

April 15th, 2025

The Big Story

For a while, it looked as though the Yankees' de facto ace, Max Fried, was set to lose a game in which he only gave up 2 runs. Fried didn't necessarily have his sharpest stuff early on, but he still managed to put together an excellent outing, getting better as the game wore on. The Yankee offense made some loud contact during the early innings, but had no runs to show for it against Michael Wacha. That all changed in the 6th inning.

After Judge led off the inning with a single, Bellinger and Goldschmidt each struck out to put the Yanks' backs up against the wall. Wacha walked Chisholm and Volpe with 2 outs to load the bases. At that point, Wacha seemed to lose all command of his stuff, and was yanked in favor of reliever, Angel Zerpa. Zerpa walked in a run on 4 pitches against Austin Wells, which brought Jasson Dominguez to the plate. Dominguez worked an excellent at-bat, and concluded it by lacing a bases-clearing double down the right field line to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead they wouldn't relinquish.

The offense was clutch when it counted; Max Fried gave the Yankees length and a strong performance; the defense was excellent on numerous occasions; and Devin Williams, who has made finishing games an adventure in the season's first few weeks, had a clean 9th inning to close out the win. The victory gives the Yanks a series win after two straight series losses.

A Deeper Dive

Dominguez's Signature Moment

Prior to last night's game, it felt like Dominguez had a bit of a ho-hum start to the season. He'd been acceptable out in LF, and while he had shown glimpses of talent at the plate by controlling the strike zone and making some powerful swings, it really hadn't resulted in big performances. The underlying indicators didn't look great either; Dominguez was mixing a fair amount of soft contact in with some hard contact and his strikeout rate was high even considering his excellent walk rate.

That changed on Tuesday night. Dominguez laced hard singles in his first two at-bats before coming to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Prior to Dominguez's at-bat, Austin Wells had an RBI walk on 4 pitches. Dominguez showed veteran aptitude by taking a strike on the first pitch, forcing the pitcher, Zerpa, to throw a strike. After working the count to 2-2, Dominguez showed no problem catching up to a 96 MPH fastball up and in on the black of the plate over the third baseman's head for a bases-clearing double. Even better? Dominguez did it while hitting right-handed, the side of the plate that Dominguez has struggled from most this year. We also got to laugh as Dominguez whacked the helmet off as his swing finished into the back of his own head, leading Dominguez to admit to Meredith Marakovits after the game that he didn't even get to see the ball leave the infield.

It has felt like Dominguez needed a big game to really get going, and last night looks like the night. He's also played really well defensively in LF throughout this series, and he made his defensive chances look easy last night. Let's hope this is a game that starts a hot streak.

Boone Out-Manages Me

In the top half of the 7th inning, almost immediately following Dominguez's heroics, Aaron Boone subbed Dominguez out to put his best defensive alignment on the field, getting Grisham in CF and shifting Bellinger to LF. I get that this alignment is better defensively, but I was furious to see it happen so early, particularly after Dominguez had just broken the game open for the Yankees. Dominguez has looked quite good in LF over the last two games, further infuriating me.

Goes to show you how much I know. Just a few short minutes later, MJ Melendez stung a ball to deep right-center, a ball that almost certainly falls in as a hit most of the time. Luckily, Trent Grisham had a great jump and showed plenty of range to make a really good catch. I don't think Bellinger would have gotten to that ball, and it could have easily changed the momentum negatively for the Yankees. I'll shut up about the defensive alignment in the outfield...for now.

Fried's Great, Even When He's Not At His Best

Max Fried's final line looks borderline dominant from his outing last night. There were moments where he really did look dominant, to the point where he petitioned Boone to stay in the game when he was pulled in the 7th inning. The reality is that he was a bit inconsistent early before settling down.

While he was stellar for his first two innings, Fried pushed some long at-bats and hung a couple of balls that didn't beat him. That changed in the 3rd inning. MJ Melendez ambushed the second pitch of the inning, a 94 MPH fastball out over the plate. Later, Fried gave up a run-scoring double to Bobby Witt Jr. on a deep line drive that nearly left the yard.

After that, though? Fried got tough and really had moments of domination against the Royals, showing a potent mix of hard fastballs, knee-buckling curves, and well-sequenced and placed sliders to keep the Royals off balance. It was an impressive start from a guy who likely didn't have his best stuff. Need proof? Fried threw his 4-seam fastball 44% of the time, a much higher rate than typical, possibly indicating the need to gain some strike zone command. Overall, Fried is living up to his billing. He's a fine replacement for Gerrit Cole.

Devin Williams Remains An Adventure

If you were to look at the stats from last night's game, you would see that Williams threw a perfect 9th inning with a save and think everything was fine. Watching the game gave a very different impression. Hitters were not fooled by the Airbender, and Williams had two very hard hit balls against him, the first of which was a deep fly ball by Massey that just missed being a homer by a couple of feet. It all came together more for Williams by the last batter, Melendez, forcing two whiffs, but it still made for an uncomfortable outing. I really hope that Williams is just a slow starter, because he doesn't look like a dominant closer to me.

Player of the Game

This is easy: Jasson Dominguez. The guy went 3-3 with a 2B and 3 RBIs, and really was a difference maker out there.

Notable Performances

Aaron Judge: 2-3, 1 R, 1 BB

Max Fried: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR

Anthony Volpe: 1-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB

Devin Williams: 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K

Better to Forget

Ben Rice went 0-5 with a K, though he stung a ball right at Sal Perez at 1B early on.

The middle of the order (Bellinger, Goldschmidt, Jazz): 0-9, 1 R, 3 K, 1 BB. That's just not good enough.

Looking to Tonight

The Yankees will look to complete the sweep at 7:05 PM tonight in the Bronx. Clarke Schmidt will make his season debut (likely on a short pitch limit of 80-85ish pitches) against Royals lefty Kris Bubic.