Final Score: NYY 10 | KC 1

Overall Record: 39-29

Winning/Losing Pitcher

• W: Marcus Stroman (6-2 | 2.82 ERA)
• L: Brady Singer (4-3 | 3.30 ERA)

Key Highlights

I’m gonna be honest. This one was tough to watch in person. I wouldn’t necessarily say that there’s a player of the game for the Royals just because it was so lopsided, but that’s baseball. Just gotta shake it off and be done with it, or else you can bring some bad mojo going into the next one tomorrow.. We’ll get deeper here in a second, but a good way to describe this one in a nutshell is: Yankees are the best team in baseball, and although they’ve had an excellent start, the Royals aren’t there yet.

Started in the first inning, with Brady Singer getting into some typical Singer behavior. Being afraid on the mound. Here’s the thing, I get it, two MVP candidates back-to-back in a lineup is scary. But you have to be on the attack. And after a leadoff triple, and some scared shenanigans. The Royals were suddenly down 2-0 in a flash. Marcus Stroman, on the contrary, had it working tonight. Wasn’t necessarily blowing guys away, and I can count on many occasions that they had solid contact that was just hit directly to a fielder. You can kind of sum it up that way in this one. Stroman attacked and trusted his defense behind him, and Singer didn’t trust the situation. Brady blew up again in the fourth, giving up four, three on a home run by one of the Yankees top prospects, Austin Wells. All while the offensive for the Royals was utterly quiet. Other than a couple Bobby Witt Jr. hits, including a hustle double, Royals hitters were silent the entire way through. Of course they missed Hunter Renfroe, who was placed on the IL before this game. He was just starting to put it together before fracturing his big left toe. Adam Frazier was also out, letting both Drew Waters and Nick Pratto make their 2024 debuts tonight. Pratto’s was more surprising to say the least, pitching a scoreless frame in the top of the 9th.

But back to the interesting stuff, which is Aaron Judge absolutely pummeling a baseball into the fountains in center field. Not many hit them that far, and the American League home run leader just adds another one to his total. Then Giancarlo Stanton following that one up with a preposterous blast over every wall in center field. That made the lead 10-0, forcibly letting the Royals know it was Yankees’ world, and we’re just living in it. 

Freddy Fermin was the only source of offense from the Royals all night, and he didn’t even start. He continued his hitting streak making the total 7 games so far, I made a comment during the at-bat that it was pretty crappy to just kill this guys’ hit streak because he was in for one at-bat, but he proved me wrong. Letting the world know that the Ferminator legacy lives on. 

But yeah, that one was brutal, All you can do is just wash it off and come in tomorrow ready to take advantage of an opportunity. These Royals are about to be tested here for the next couple series since it’s basically the 2023 team all over again. They have to continue to show their development and just keep getting over the hump until the fall. Cause if you can somehow make it to October, anything can happen. No need to rip out your hair just yet, remember they are playing the best teams in baseball the next couple times up. It’s a way to measure a barometer of your competitiveness for sure, but these teams also have triple, even quintupled you in salary cap. Just something to keep in mind. Somewhere, former Royals beat writer, Jeffery Flanagan is continuing to talk about the salary cap/floor in the MLB, but that’s another discussion for another day. 

Sometimes a team will just show up, and kick you right in the ass.

Summary of the Next Game

This series against New York continues, as the Royals will try to make it competitive the next time out. Cody Poteet takes the mound for the Yankees, surprisingly a player that was in the Royals organization last year, and has a sub two ERA. Dan Altavilla will start the game as an opener for KC. First time this season that we have had to have an opener for a game, which means we’ll probably see an extended look at Angel Zerpa in this one. We’ll just have to wait and see. The Royals will try to salvage what’s left of the series tomorrow at 7:10. Hopefully Kauffman will continue to draw some bigger crowds, cause the energy is there if they can put something together.