This was men against boys over the weekend in the Bronx as the Yankees pummeled the Royals across three games, two of which were laughers. The bats were humming, the bullpen - outside of one stiff - was effective, and all three starting pitchers were excellent and pretty soon when Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole return, Aaron Boone is going to have some tough decisions to make.  Lets get to it.

Can we all stand up and give a round of applause and a hearty thanks to the Kansas City Royals for showing up at just the right time and doing their part to get the Yankees back on track.

Well done boys.

It was a fantastic weekend for the Yankees in every way, but let’s also make the point that holy shit, the Royals were God awful. That was just a deplorable display of baseball by that team and it’s pretty clear why they are riding out of New York on a seven-game losing streak and sitting dead last in the AL Central with a 7-15 record.

After a hard-fought 4-2 victory on Friday where Camilo Doval blew an eighth-inning lead before Ryan McMahon stunned everyone with his game-winning two-run homer, the Yankees rag-dolled the Royals over the final two games, outscoring them 20-4, and thanks to the Rays losing two of three in Pittsburgh, the Yankees edged back into first place in the AL East.

Obviously it was a huge series for the bats, but let’s focus on the starting pitching because we are closing in on the time when the Yankees have some big decisions to make.

Gerrit Cole made his first rehab start Friday night for Double-A Somerset and he seems right on track with his schedule and if that continues, he’ll be back in the rotation by mid-to-late May. And Carlos Rodon is almost ready to make his first rehab start and if all goes well, he should be back shortly before Cole.

Thus, the Yankees will need to make room in the rotation and looking at this series against Kansas City, it’s pretty clear that - barring injuries to anyone - Luis Gil’s future is as cloudy as the skies were in the Bronx during Sunday’s three-hour rain delay.

Gil just doesn’t do anything particularly well and he’s nowhere near the pitcher he was in the first half of 2024 when he burst on the scene and ultimately won the AL rookie of the year award. His velocity has dipped, he doesn’t have any putaway secondary pitches, and his command issues remain prevalent. Given all that, I can’t even see how the Yankees can insert him into the bullpen because he can’t be trusted in the late innings. So when Rodon returns, Gil is the first man out, either back to Triple-A or perhaps moved in a trade to acquire a much-needed bullpen asset, though I doubt Brian Cashman would do that.

The next decision when Cole gets back figures to be much tougher if Will Warren and Ryan Weathers pitch the way they did against Kansas City. Granted, the Royals’ offense is terrible right now as it sits 27th in MLB in average (.218) and on-base (.296) and 28th in OPS (.635), but you have to give credit to both Warren and Weathers for making great pitches. Warren gave up just two runs and Weathers zero while combining for 19 strikeouts and just one walk in 14.1 innings.

Based on what I’ve seen, I think Warren is who I’d stick with in the No. 5 spot behind Cole, Rodon, Max Fried and Cam Schlittler. He’s got a much more defined history as a starter, a guy who took the ball 33 times in 2025 and was rock solid. Remember, his 4.44 ERA was heavily damaged by three terrible starts he had against the Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays which represented 21 of the 80 earns runs he allowed all season.

“You’ve seen in all of his outings this year, what’s stood out to me is how much swing and miss he is getting with his fastball,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s got a unique delivery and (arm) slot that allows that to play.”

Weathers has a plus-plus fastball and when he’s going well, a very good slider, and that combination could really play in short bullpen stints and he’s averaging 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings through his first five starts, 36 in all which ties for fifth-most in MLB with Schlittler. His career high in innings is 94.2 back in 2021 because he has battled injuries, so that alone would suggest he’d be the guy to go to the pen in an effort to keep him pitching all year. You could easily see him at the back end of games in some order with Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz bridging to closer David Bednar, pushing Doval into mid-inning low leverage spots.

“There was a lot of good in the last outing,’’ Boone said. “It was a case of a team [the Angels] swinging the bat well and not getting his fastball where he needed to. He had a hard time locating it.”

➤ I’m not one to believe in miracles, and if you’re wondering, the Miracle on Ice was not a miracle, it was just the most stunning sports upset of our lifetime. But I might have changed my tune on the whole miracle thing because I think we witnessed one in the opener. Ryan McMahon, who came into the game with five singles for the season, hit his tie-breaking and eventual game-winning two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth.

➤ There are many things we have come to expect from the Yankees. For instance, given the opportunity, you damn well know Camilo Doval will probably suck, and he did as he gave up a tying solo home run to Vinnie Pasquantino in the top of the eighth, costing Cam Schlittler a well-deserved victory on his ledger. And we can usually expect McMahon to be feeble at the plate, but reliever Alex Lange threw a changeup at the bottom of the zone and McMahon lofted it into the air to left and it just barely cleared the wall into the first row of seats. That was stunning, and if there was ever a reason for me to illuminate how meaningless pitcher won-loss records are, McMahon handed Doval a most undeserved W.

➤ Schlittler was solid again, though he did walk two men in six innings after having walked just one in his first four starts. It didn’t matter because he gave up only three singles, and the only time the Royals had two men aboard in the same inning was the sixth and seventh. In the sixth, that was because he walked Maikel Garcia and then Trent Grisham dropped a deep fly ball hit by Bobby Witt, ruled a two-base error. Here, he gave up a run-scoring grounder to Pasquantino before whiffing Salvador Perez.

➤ In the seventh, a walk and a single ended Schlittler’s night but Brent Headrick, who is becoming one of the few relievers Aaron Boone can trust, beautifully worked out of the jam, helping himself by picking off Carter Jensen at second base.

➤ Ben Rice provided the Yankees first two runs in the fourth with a two-run homer off Michael Wacha who otherwise owned the Yankees. After Doval’s latest letdown, Lange retired the first two men but Rice roped a single and McMahon followed with his home run. I cracked up when YES showed the dugout and Cody Bellinger looked as stunned as we all were as McMahon rounded the bases.

➤ In the ninth, David Bednar worked around a leadoff walk by mowing down the last three men, two by strikeout for his sixth save.

➤ The Yankees brought out the big sticks in this one as they tattooed Royals starter Noah Cameron and cruised to an easy victory. Even JC Escarra was hitting rockets off him. Coming into the game, the Yankees led MLB with the most games decided by two runs or less, 14 of their first 20, so it was nice to it in cruise control and make it an easy Saturday afternoon.

➤ This one was over pretty quickly as the Yankees scored five runs in the third and kept tacking on as the day advanced. In that third, the outburst began when Escarra hit a drive into right-center and Caglianone and Kyle Isbel collided and the ball fell to the ground as Escarra chugged into third on a three-base error. Amed Rosario then launched a two-run missile to left, Aaron Judge walked and Bellinger hit a two-run shot by Bellinger, and Rice followed with a solo shot. Against this Royals offense, that was all the Yankees really needed.

➤ But sensing blood in the water, they kept pouring it on. Bellinger had an RBI single and another two-run homer for a five-RBI day which was a long while coming. He hadn’t homered in his previous 11 games and he came into the day with just six RBI. Rosario, starting ahead of McMahon again with lefty Cameron starting, had three RBI, as did Escarra who had a double and a two-triple in the seventh.

➤ Will Warren got off to another excellent start, and finally, he kept it going and didn’t suffer one of those tragic innings that so often end his starts early. He dominated the punchless Royals for six scoreless innings before giving up a two-run homer in the seventh to Jensen. He allowed just five hits with no walks and 11 strikeouts. Outstanding. Paul Blackburn mopped up and he gave up two runs in the ninth, but that was because Rosario took over for Judge in right, took a terrible route on a ball that should have been the final out, and it went over his head for a two-run double. Bummer for his ERA which jumped to 4.50.

➤ Here’s a crazy stat for you. Later on Saturday, the Mets lost their 10th game in a row. Do you know the last time the Yankees lost 10 straight? It was in 1913. The team with the second-longest period since it had a 10-game losing streak is the Cardinals who did it in 1980.

➤ Ryan Weathers was even better than Warren as he threw 7.1 scoreless innings which was quite a bounce back from his last start when he gave up four homers to the Angels including three straight in the first inning.

➤ The Yankees had not scored a single run with Weathers on the mound this season, but that changed in a hurry in his fifth start as they assaulted Royals ace Cole Ragans who was simply brutal. Ragans, who gave up seven runs on four hits and a career-high eight walks, walked Rice to start the game and Judge hit the 90th first-inning homer of his career. Ragans then walked the bases full and Austin Wells hit a sac fly for a 3-0 lead.

➤ Rice was placed in the leadoff spot for the first time and that worked out pretty well as he homered in the second and later drew two walks. He’s now homered in four straight games, his .476 on-base and 1.276 OPS leads MLB, and he should stay right there at the top of the order because even though Grisham crushed a three-run homer in the fifth, he can’t continue to get the most at bats up there. Rice can really do damage hitting in front of Judge.

➤ Wells’ struggles continued as he’s hitting .180 with two RBI, and as for Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton, they both rode the pine, and deservedly so. Chisholm has been so terrible at the plate, it looks like he’s working on his golf swing half the time chasing pitches in the dirt, and his average is down to .167 with no homers. So much for that 50-50 season he swears he has in his bag. And after Stanton’s hot start, he’s now in a 5-for-42 slump and though he has hit a few balls hard, they’re not dropping and he’s stuck on two homers in 81 plate appearances.

After playing 13 straight days, the Yankees finally get a day off Monday as they travel to Boston for the first series of the year against their arch rivals. It starts a nine-game road trip that will also take them to Houston and Texas, and it also starts a stretch where they play 18 of 25 on the road.

Looking at the standings, it sure feels like a good time to be playing the Red Sox who are 8-13 and tied for last in the AL East with the Blue Jays, and the same goes for the Astros who have lost four in a row and are in last in the AL West at 8-15. Of course, these are the Red Sox and Astros, so you know damn well nothing is going to be easy about either of those series.

➤ SS Trevor Story: He’s healthy and while he’s not really hitting at .193, he’s sure hitting in key spots because he has a team-high 17 RBI.

➤ RF Wilyer Abreu: An elite fielder who also leads the Sox with a .312 average and a .506 slugging percentage.

➤ DH Roman Anthony: His struggles in the field have pushed him to the DH spot, and he hasn’t found his groove yet at the plate, just one homer and three RBI hitting .227.

➤ 1B Willson Contreras: He came over in a trade from the Brewers and has been Boston’s most consistent hitter as he leads the team with four homers and a .902 OPS.

➤ RP Aroldis Chapman: Yes, he’s still there, still throwing 100 mph, and if given the chance he’ll be happy to flip the bird at the Yankees like he did last season when he owned them - seven appearances, one run allowed, five saves.