CC Sabathia started for the Pinstripes, and was his old (or young) self: He went 5 innings, allowing 1 unearned run on 3 hits, before concern for age and injury led Brian Cashman (through Aaron Boone) to take him out. His 5 strikeouts got him closer to a milestone: He now has 2,994 for his career. The 4 walks were a worry, though.
But that unearned run in the 3rd, thanks to errors by CC himself and Luke Voit, put the Yankees down 1-0. They struck right back, as Tyler Wade singled and Brett Gardner hit a home run. 2-1 Yankees.
Mike Tauchman led off the 5th with a homer. The Royals closed to within 3-2 in the top of the 6th, but the Yankees put the game away in the bottom of the inning. Aaron Judge led off with a double, Voit drew a walk, Gleyber Torres got an infield single to load the bases with nobody out.
If you were expecting the Yankees to get some runs home, you may not have expected how they did it. DJ LeMahieu flew to center for a sacrifice fly that got Judge home, and Clint Frazier drew a walk whose ball 4 was a passed ball, allowing Voit to score. 5-2 Yankees.
Kyle Higashioka, doing just fine filling in at as catcher for the injured Gary Sanchez, doubled to lead off the bottom of the 7th. Wade tried to sacrifice him over, and got more than that when Royal 3rd baseman Hunter Rosier fielded his bunt and threw it away for another run.
Luis Cessa allowed a run in the 6th, while Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle and Zach Britton each pitched a scoreless, hitless inning.
Yankees 6, Royals 2. WP: Sabathia (1-0). No save. LP: Jakob Junis (1-2). CC notched his 247th career win, and is now 15-1 with a 2.71 ERA in 27 regular-season starts following a Yankees loss since the start of the 2017 season. Shades of an earlier, much thinner lefty, Ron Guidry in 1978.
The series continues this afternoon. Masahiro Tanaka starts against Heath Fillmyer. Yeah, I know: Another one of those weird names that sounds like the name of a shady law firm.
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