KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Yankees may have a new Twins, or at least a budding twin of the Twins, another AL Central team that has become their personal punching bag and a cure to all that ails them.
The Royals do not yet have the longevity of the Twins, but they may be on their way.
During a recent stretch when hits and runs have largely been at a premium, the Yankees enjoyed an all-you-can-eat buffet of them Tuesday en route to a much-needed laugher.
Attacking early and often while racking up a season-high 24 hits — 21 before facing a position player pitching the top of the ninth — the Yankees cruised to their third straight win, 15-1 over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
The Yankees (33-22) have won 13 straight games against the Royals (22-33), dating to the 2024 ALDS, and will go for the sweep Wednesday with Gerrit Cole on the mound. They have won 22 of their past 23 completed series against the Royals. In five head-to-head wins this season, the Yankees have outscored Kansas City 43-10.
Every member of the Yankees starting lineup had at least two hits. Amed Rosario led the way with four, and Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells each added three. Rosario homered twice, and Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. also went deep on a night when the Yankees led 9-0 by the top of the third inning.
Before Tuesday, each of their past eight games — including Monday’s ninth-inning comeback win — and 11 of their past 15 had been decided by one or two runs. That made Tuesday’s blowout a nice change of pace, allowing Cam Schlittler to get a breather — in the form of six innings of one-run ball on 77 pitches, keeping his ERA at 1.50 — and Ryan Yarbrough to take care of the rest to give an overworked bullpen a blow.
The Royals used Bailey Falter as an opener, and the left-hander simply faltered. The Yankees clobbered him for seven runs across 2 ¹/₃ innings. Falter faced 16 batters, all of them putting the ball in play and 13 of them registering hard-hit balls at exit velocities of 95 mph or higher.
Bellinger started it off with a two-out homer in the first inning before Paul Goldschmidt doubled. It looked like that might be all the damage in the frame, as Ben Rice appeared to line out to right field for the final out, but the Yankees challenged and replay review showed that Jac Caglianone just barely used the ground to secure his snow-cone catch.
That turned the third out into an RBI single, and Rosario used it to his advantage by following with a two-run shot to make it 4-0.
Volpe — who played hero Monday with a two-run go-ahead single in the top of the ninth — led off the second inning Tuesday with his first home run of the season. It was a 409-foot blast that came off the bat at 103.1 mph, his first home run since Aug. 29.
The shortstop ended up a triple short of the cycle, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs, continuing to make a case for more playing time with quality at-bats.
The Yankees knocked Falter out of the game in the third but kept piling on against right-hander Luinder Avila as they stormed out to a 9-0 lead on 12 hits through three innings — more hits or runs than they had recorded in any game since May 7.
Yankees Merch Shop
New York Post receives revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and when you make a purchase.
That was more than enough support for Schlittler, who kept hold of the majors’ lowest ERA through 12 starts. He had thrown 106 pitches in each of his past two starts before Tuesday, so by the time he finished the sixth inning at 77 pitches — having given up only a solo home run to Bobby Witt Jr. while striking out six — he got the rest of the night off.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
