Aaron Judge snapped his homer-less streak and the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-3, on Wednesday night to sweep the three-game series in The Bronx.
Here are the takeaways…
-With the game tied in the seventh inning, Judge chose a perfect time to end his drought of 10 straight games without a home run, sending a 1-0 sinker from reliever John Schreiber to deep center field and parking it 383 feet away from home plate to put New York up by one.
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Despite the dry spell, it was still Judge’s seventh homer of the season, tied for second most in MLB and just one off the leaderboard.
-After pitching a clean top of the eighth inning with the lead, Fernando Cruz, vying for his first career save, went back out for the ninth with closer Devin Williams unavailable and managed to escape a hairy situation thanks to Cody Bellinger‘s diving catch in right field for the last out with the tying run at second base.
-Wednesday marked the return of Clarke Schmidt, who made his season debut after dealing with right rotator cuff tendonitis in spring training that forced him to start the 2025 campaign on the 15-day IL.
The right-hander got into early trouble and allowed a run in the first inning on Salvador Perez‘s RBI single that scored Bobby Witt Jr., who singled and advanced to second after a walk. Schmidt got out of the inning without any further damage and after shaking off some rust, he settled into a nice groove, retiring 11 consecutive hitters at one point.
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That streak ended in the fifth inning after the 29-year-old allowed a leadoff single to Drew Waters, followed by an RBI triple to Kyle Isbel. Another run came around to score on a groundout, which tied the game, 3-3.
Schmidt’s final line in his first start: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K on 73 pitches (46 strikes) — definitely one he can build upon for the season.
-After falling behind 1-0, the Yankees took the lead in the third against LHP Kris Bubic with a two-out rally started by Judge, who doubled to left field. Judge had already singled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to five games. He finished 3-for-3 with a walk, RBI, two runs scored and was a triple shy of the cycle. He leads the league with his .409 batting average and 1.322 OPS.
With runners on first and second following a walk, Anthony Volpe went up to bat with a chance to redeem himself after he struck out with the bases loaded in the first inning, and redeem himself he did as the 23-year-old stroked a double to left field that drove in two and gave New York a 2-1 lead.
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-There was more two-out magic for the Yanks in the fourth when Oswald Peraza singled with two gone in front of leadoff man Paul Goldschmidt, who also singled. Bellinger, off to a rough offensive start in New York, came through with a double down the first-base line just over the bag and past the glove of Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino that scored the team’s third run and gave the Yanks a two-point cushion that Schmidt could not hold.
Game MVP: Aaron Judge
Court was once again in session as Judge snapped a homer-less streak of 11 games with his game-winning home run in the seventh.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees head out for a seven-game road trip with the first of a four-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
RHP Will Warren (1-0, 5.14 ERA) goes up against RHP Taj Bradley (2-0, 3.71 ERA).
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