Yankees Crown Royals, Remain In 1st Place

Tired from all that waiting through rain delays in Washington, the Yankees flew out to Kansas City for their next series. It surprised nobody that they lost the opener to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. CC Sabathia did not have good stuff, although the bullpen was decent. Aaron Hicks went 3-for-4, and Giancarlo Stanton 2-for-4, but the rest of the lineup only managed 3 hits.

Royals 5, Yankees 2. WP: Jakob Junis (5-3). SV: Kelvin Herrera (9). LP: Sabathia (2-1)

*

Things got better on Saturday night. The Royals don't celebrate Old-Timers' Day, but they brought back a bunch of former greats in celebration of their 50th Season. (Next year will be their 50th Anniversary.) In addition to Royal heroes like George Brett and Frank White, there were some guys who also did things of note with the Yankees, like Lou Piniella, Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran.

Luis Severino was very effective again, going 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6. Between them, Chad Green, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman allowed only 1 hit (Green in the 7th) and 1 walk (Chapman in the 9th).

It seemed like ages since the Yankees did any hitting, but they got 2 home runs from Gary Sanchez, and 1 each from Stanton, Hicks and Gleyber Torres. Sanchez and Torres each had 3 RBIs on the night.

Yankees 8, Royals 3. WP: Severino (7-1). No save. LP: Danny Duffy (1-6).

*

Then, yesterday, Sonny Gray pitched brilliantly, taking a shutout into the 8th inning. He was backed by 4 home runs: 2 by Tyler Austin, and 1 each by Miguel Andujar and Austin Romine.

Yankees 10, Royals 1. WP: Gray (3-3). No save. LP: Eric Skoglund (1-4).

*

So here's where things stand, 7 weeks into the 26-week Major League Baseball regular season:

* The Yankees are 30-13, with a winning percentage of .698, the best in the major leagues.

* They and the Boston Red Sox, at 32-15, are technically tied for 1st place in the American League Eastern Division, but, since the Yankees have 2 games in hand, they are 2 games ahead of the Sox in the all-important loss column. The Tampa Bay Rays are 9 back, 10 in the loss column; the Toronto Blue Jays, 10 and 12; the Baltimore Orioles, 17 1/2 and 19. This Division looks like a 2-horse race, and the same 2 classics.

* If the current standings held to the end of the season, the Red Sox would host the Seattle Mariners in the AL Wild Card Game, with the winner facing the Yankees in 1 AL Division Series, and the Houston Astros facing the Cleveland Indians in the other. In the National League, it would be the resurgent Philadelphia Phillies hosting the St. Louis Cardinals, with the winner facing the Atlanta Braves in 1 NLDS, and the Milwaukee Brewers would play the Arizona Diamondbacks in the other.

The Yankees continue their roadtrip, against the Texas Rangers. Here are the projected pitching matchups:

* Monday, 8:05 PM Eastern Time (7:05 Central and local): Masahiro Tanaka against Bartolo Colon, who turns 45 on Thursday. Funny how he was a "cheat" when he pitched for the Yankees in 2011, but nobody has cared about his performance-enhancing drug use since he left the Yankees.

* Tuesday, 8:05: Domingo German vs. Cole Hamels. There is a rumor going around that the Yankees are going to try to trade for Hamels, who helped the Phillies win Pennants in 2008 and '09, but I wouldn't bet on it. He doesn't really offer the Yankees an upgrade anymore. He was the Most Valuable Player of the 2008 World Series. Given some of his acquisitions of the last few years, I've joked that Yankee general manager Brian Cashman is still trying to win the 2008 World Series, more so than he was in 2008 -- or for 2018.

* Wednesday, 7:05 (6:05 local): CC Sabathia -- for once, the thinnest starter in a series, and not the oldest -- vs. Doug Fister.

Thursday is a day off, and then the Yankees return to start a new home series on Friday, against the Whatever They're Calling Themselves This Season Angels of Anaheim.