Yankees vs Royals Recap: Big win fuels 7-0 shutout

The Yankees came to Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium hunting another win. They'd destroyed the Royals 15-1 the night before and weren't slowing down. The Royals were desperate—they'd lost three straight games and their season felt slipping away. Ben Rice stepped up first for New York and delivered instantly. Rice tripled hard to left field, sending Paul Goldschmidt racing home with the Yankees' first run. Aaron Judge followed with a sacrifice fly to right, and Rice scored easily. It was 2-0 Yankees before the Royals even got a chance to bat. The Yankees' bats were awake. The Royals needed to wake theirs up fast.

The Yankees' bats came alive in the seventh inning like a storm rolling in. Paul Goldschmidt worked a walk off Nick Mears that sent Trent Grisham racing home. The bases loaded up with Yankees. Then Ben Rice cracked a single to right field. Two more Yankees runners came sprinting across—McMahon and Volpe both scored on Rice's hit. Suddenly it was 5-0. The Royals were falling apart defensively. Their pitchers couldn't find the zone. Nothing was working. Kansas City's hitters still hadn't scored. The Royals looked defeated on the field. The game was slipping away from them fast. New York was rolling, and nobody in a Kansas City uniform could stop them.

The eighth inning brought one more Yankees score. Ryan McMahon stepped into the box against Mason Black and saw his pitch. McMahon ripped a fastball to left field. The ball rocketed off his bat toward the wall. It sailed over and dropped into the Kansas City bleachers for a home run. Grisham scored ahead of him. That made it 7-0. The game was completely over. Gerrit Cole had been brilliant on the mound—he pitched six and two-thirds innings, gave up four hits, struck out ten batters, and didn't allow a single run. The Royals couldn't solve him. The Yankees improved to 34-22 with this shutout win. Kansas City fell to 22-34. The Royals' struggles continued as the Yankees proved once again why their pitching is special.