Bronx Bombers Get Back to Bashing in 10-1 Rout of Royals

The Yankees steamrolled the Royals 10-1 behind three home runs and more stellar pitching led by Marcus Stroman. At 48-21, the Yankees have the most wins in MLB and the .696 winning percentage is one point behind the Phillies, yet they only have a 2.5-game lead on the Orioles. Down in Box Score Briefs, a look at what’s happening in the NL division races. Lets get to it.

June 11: Yankees 10, Royals 1

Remember that small ball victory the Trent Grisham/Jahmai Jones Yankees pulled out Monday with several of their prime-time players taking the night off? Well, the big boys were back in the lineup Tuesday and the Bronx Bombers returned to form with some serious pyrotechnics as they crushed the Royals.

Anthony Volpe banged one off the wall in left-center for a triple on the second pitch thrown by very good Kansas City starter Brady Singer and the Yankees were off to the races. They scored twice in that first inning, then the bombs started going off as Austin Wells hit a three-run shot in the fourth, and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton hit 882 feet worth of homers in the seventh to blow it wide open.

It was an impressive show and now, after dropping those two games to the Dodgers, the Yankees have won three in a row and they continue to stay in front of the Orioles who simply refuse to lose as they beat the disappointing Braves to stretch their winning streak to five.

Judge is utterly ridiculous right now. He extended his on-base streak to 36 games during which he has slashed .415/.535/1.016 with an OPS of 1.551, 19 homers and 44 RBI. Folks, that is almost impossible to fathom, a stretch of brilliance that very few players in the history of baseball have ever put together.

“I try not to look up (at my stats), even when I’m hitting .150, I try not to look up there,” Judge said. “It’s still early in the season; I’m just trying to put together good at-bats. We’re facing some tough teams with some great pitching staffs.”

He might not look, but we can. He is now tied with the Guardians' José Ramírez for the MLB lead in RBIs with 62, and he leads MLB in home runs (25), on-base percentage (.437), slugging percentage (.712), OPS (1.149) and walks (55).

“I’m trying not to take that for granted, but I mean, it’s a lot of fun to witness and to watch what he’s doing on a nightly basis,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s pretty special.”

Here are my observations:

➤ The Royals rank fifth in MLB in runs scored with 332, so they can do damage, but so far through two games in this series they have a total of three runs and 12 hits and have gone 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position while leaving 15 men on base.

➤ Marcus Stroman pitched 5.2 scoreless innings allowing just four hits and three walks though he struck out only one. He didn’t have the greatest command as he dealt with plenty of deep counts thanks to just 54 strikes on 102 pitches, but he made big pitches when he needed as his ERA dipped to 2.82.

➤ Stroman got into trouble in the sixth, though with the Yankees leading 7-0 it wasn’t that big of a deal. A leadoff single by Bobby Witt Jr. and two walks loaded the bases, but Ron Marinaccio - who was just recalled from Triple-A to replace the departed Dennis Santana (who was signed by the Pirates Tuesday) - came in and struck out Drew Waters with a 95 mph fastball right down the middle.

➤ The Yankees scored twice in the first. Volpe tripled, Juan Soto walked and Judge blooped an RBI single to right. Stanton then hit a grounder to third and Soto beat the throw home with a nice slide so yes, for once the contact play actually worked.

➤ The key inning was the fourth. Still just 2-0 with Singer starting to settle in, Alex Verdugo singled, Stanton was hit by a pitch, Anthony Rizzo moved them up with a ground out, and then Gleyber Torres singled home one and Wells blasted a three-run homer to dead center to make it 6-0.

➤ Oswaldo Cabrera, playing third in place of resting DJ LeMahieu, had an RBI single in the sixth, and in the seventh, Judge and Stanton hit their missiles into the Kansas City night, both soaring over the center field wall off reliever Nick Anderson. Stanton’s ended his 0-for-17 slump.

➤ Rizzo returned to the lineup after two days off and it didn’t matter as he went 0-for-5 including a double play grounder, a grounder to first, a tapper in front of the plate that traveled about three feet, and a pop up to third. He did reach base on an error by the second baseman, so again, not even a ball out of the infield.

➤ “It’s not something I’m happy about, but I understand,” Rizzo said of benching. “It’s not like I was fighting (Boone) on it, but you want to play every day. It’s no secret: It’s a grind right now. This is what makes you appreciate the sunny days in this game. … Just need one of those balls to find some (grass) to exhale a little bit. As bad as it was, hit a couple balls hard,” said Rizzo, who Boone thought has been chasing too many pitches. “But kind of the same trend: On the ground to the right side and pop-ups to the left. Just trying to figure that out.”

After Tuesday’s look at the American League division races, today I’m focusing on what’s happening in the National League.

⚾ NL East: Everyone figured in the offseason that the Dodgers and the Braves would be the powerhouses in the NL, but right now, the Phillies may very well be the best team. They have the best record in the NL at 46-20 and have taken full advantage of the Braves’ season-long malaise to open a huge 10-game lead, one that will be very difficult for Atlanta to overcome. The Phillies’ team ERA of 2.90 is second only to the Yankees (2.85) but their starter ERA (2.63) is No. 1. Ranger Suarez has been close to unhittable (10-1, 1.81 ERA, .0850 WHIP), but Zach Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Christopher Sanchez all have ERA’s of 2.77 or lower.

The Braves (35-29) have been crushed by season-ending injuries to their best position player (Ronald Acuna) and pitcher (Spencer Strider), while offensive studs Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley (who missed a couple weeks with an injury) have underperformed. Without Marcell Ozuna’s 18 homers, 55 RBI and .987 OPS, the Braves would really be in trouble.

The Nationals (31-35) and Mets (28-37) are on the periphery of the wild-card picture, but they need a whole lot to happen before anyone will take them seriously.

⚾ NL Central: Like the AL Central, not much was expected from this five-team group. But unlike the AL Central which has been surprisingly feisty, the NL Central has played according to form. Only the first-place Brewers (39-28) are over .500 and then you have the other four teams who are all within a half-game of each other, and as a result are all within 1.5 games of the final wild-card spot.

The Brewers don’t seem to miss manager Craig Counsell who jumped to the rival Cubs for the richest manager contract in history. They rank sixth in OPS at .738 with Christian Yelich turning the clock back to his 2018 MVP season with a slash line of .314/.391/.503 with an OPS of .894, and catcher William Contreras morphing into one of the best in MLB, not only as a defender but with eight homers, 46 RBI and an .841 OPS. On the mound, they traded star Corbin Burnes to the Orioles but they’ve been fine with a bullpen ERA of 3.28 which is fifth-best.

Pick your poison on everyone else. The Pirates (32-34) have been struggling on offense, but their three-headed rotation monster of Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Mitch Keller could definitely be a problem for the opposition in a any length playoff series should they make it. Their rotation ERA of 3.54 is eighth-best.

The Cubs (32-35) can’t hit at all and have been finding inventive ways to lose in walk-off fashion. The Reds (32-35) recently won seven in a row but earlier they lost eight in a row. And the Cardinals (31-33) went through a brutal offensive stretch when both Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado were scuffling and they can’t get any traction.

⚾ NL West: The Dodgers, as we saw last weekend, are a load. They haven’t even played their best ball, yet they’re 42-26 and 7.5 clear of the Padres. Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernadez are a 1 thru 5 that is unparalleled in MLB. And for as great as Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamota have been, Walker Buehler is just getting going, and Clayton Kershaw will be back probably around the All-Star break.

San Diego (36-35) should be so much better with the studs they have, but they continue to be the Dodgers’ little brother in Southern California. Fernando Tatis has been a roll the past three weeks as he’s on a 17-game hitting streak and now has 13 homers and 35 RBI, while Jurickson Profar leads the team with a .924 OPS and Jake Cronenworth has a team-high 45 RBI.

The Diamondbacks (32-35) haven’t put up much of a defense of their NL pennant, and a big reason has been the curiously terrible start by 2023 NL rookie of the year Corbin Carroll who is hitting .213 with a .300 on-base with just two homers.