Yankee Storm Drenches the Royals. NY 12 KC 2

April 30, 2022 paperbacklou 2022 0

There was a calm before the storm — with the threat of rain all day that some felt might cancel this game, they played and NY held a 3-2 lead into the 6th inning behind the gutsy pitching of Nestor Cortes Jr., who was getting pelted with singles but was holding the Royals at bay.

And then the Yankee storm came — 4 runs in the 7th and 5 runs in the 8th — for a 12-2 NY lead. And then the real rains came, with threat of tornados, as the 8th inning ended. The game was halted and never resumed — officially called an hour later as a NY win. On a Friday night in Kansas City.

The Yanks are now 14-6 with the best record in the American League — 1.5 games ahead of Toronto in the AL East. (On the other side of town, the NY Met are 15-6, with the best record in baseball, after their pitchers threw a combined no-hitter this very same evening.)

1. Yankees Bomb Early

The Yankees unloaded Bombs in the top of the very first inning against Royals starter Kris Bubic — DJ LeMahieu led off with a double, Aaron Judge lined out to center, and Anthony Rizzo hit a 415-foot homer to center for a 2-0 lead.

Next batter up Giancarlo Stanton hit a 429-foot homer to left to make it 3-0.

2. Cortes Gets 1st Win

Staked the the immediate 3-0 lead, Nestor Cortes Jr turned in a quality start — 5 innings, 1 earned run on 8 hits allowed. He had to soldier through this one — a lot of singles and doubles allowed — but held the lead and got his first win of the season to go 1-0 1.31.

“The first two innings they were on my stuff,” said Cortes afterwards. “Obviously I had to make adjustments. We started attacking the outside part of the plate more, and it gave me better results.”

Cortes allowed 2 doubles in the 1st for a run — by Whit Merrifield and then Salvador Perez to plate him.

In the 2nd he allowed a leadoff double to Bobby Witt Jr, but then picked him off 2nd. With 2 outs, Cortes allowed a 2nd run on consecutive singles — the runner scoring because he was at 2nd due to a Kyle Higashioka passed ball (thus it was an unearned run).

Cortes allowed 2 singles in the 3rd after 2 were out, pitched a 1-2-3 4th, and then allowed a single in the 5th but retired the side.

It wasn’t his best start, but he got through 5 innings with the 3-2 lead.

Jonathan Loaisiga pitched a shutout 6th and it was a close 3-2 game heading to the 7th.

3. Yankee STORM Comes Late

An Isiah Kiner-Falefa single started things in the 7th, and after a Higashioka walk and and RBI single by DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge put the game away with a 3-run line shot to the opposite field in right that just cleared the fence for a 7-2 NY lead.

“All I’m focused on is trying to get on base for the guys behind me,” said Judge afterwards. “We got some boppers behind me doing their thing and DJ in front of me, driving guys in; always on base. My job is simple — try to touch 1st base and let the other guys do their thing.”

In the 8th, Giancarlo Stanton singled and Gleyber Torres hit a bomb to left for a 9-2 NY lead.

The Yankees weren’t through — they continued to pelt KC pitching. Aaron Hicks walked, Kiner-Falefa singled, and Tim Locastro caused an error with his speed to load the bases — and Higashioka doubled them all home. 12-2. Blowout. And Ballgame.

4. Lively Balls?

All the Yankee homers and all the Royals doubles and hits off Cortes had some fans on Twitter wondering if the game had been injected with lively baseballs. The game was broadcast on AppleTV — the first Yankee game ever broadcast on AppleTV due to an agreement MLB has with Apple.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354545

 

 

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