Yankees 4, Royals 3, Memorial Day at Kauffman. They were down a run heading into the ninth, which hadn't been a comfortable spot for this club lately. Anthony Volpe -- 1-2 count, Lucas Erceg's slider left over the plate -- lined a two-run single to shallow left and the whole thing sorted itself out.
New York won their 12th straight game against Kansas City, a run that includes playoff baseball. They've made beating this team something of a habit. Today they had to actually earn it.
The Ninth-Inning Blueprint
Paul Goldschmidt broke his bat and willed an infield single into fair territory. Max Schuemann came in to run for him. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then slapped a groundball through the second-base hole and legged it into a double -- two runners in scoring position, two outs, one run down in the ninth against a closer who'd looked sharp coming in.
Erceg worked The Captain to 1-2. His slider caught too much of the plate. Volpe lined it to shallow left, Schuemann and Chisholm both scored, and the Yankees had a 4-3 lead they weren't going to lose.
David Bednar held the Royals scoreless in the ninth -- one walk, three quick outs -- for his 12th save of the year. Tim Hill gets the win (2-2) for pitching to the right moments on both sides of that inning. The Yankees'll take it.
Bobby Witt Jr. Earns His Day
This game was tied at 2-2 and feeling like extra innings when Witt Jr. stepped in against Jake Bird in the bottom of the eighth. He turned on a pitch and sent it 432 feet down the left field line, toward the Royals' Hall of Fame building. Solo shot, go-ahead run, Kansas City up 3-2.
Give Witt Jr. his credit. He'd already made an acrobatic leaping catch at shortstop in the fifth that stopped a potential hit -- the kind of play that has no business staying in anybody's glove -- and then followed it up by being the guy who nearly sank the Yankees in the eighth. Good games happen in clusters like that. Bird didn't survive much longer, and the Yankees needed something in the ninth.
How the Scoring Began
In the second inning, Cody Bellinger stepped in and lifted Michael Wacha's first pitch 403 feet to right-center field -- his seventh homer of the year and his first away from the Bronx in 2026 (he'd apparently been saving them for the home crowd). Volpe then walked, and José Caballero singled to center to score him. Yankees up 2-0 before Wacha had a chance to settle.
Will Warren then immediately complicated things by walking the bases loaded. Michael Massey hit a sacrifice fly and it was 2-1. Warren steadied and kept it quiet through innings three, four, and five before Perez made it interesting in the sixth -- six innings total, two earned, and the kind of start that keeps the team in the game without asking for recognition. He didn't get any in the decision column either.
Salvador Perez and a Record That Stands for Now
Warren and Wacha were matching each other pitch for pitch into the sixth when Perez stepped in and ended that. He caught a Warren fastball and drove it 422 feet to left -- his ninth homer of the year and his 136th career home run at Kauffman Stadium, tying George Brett's all-time record at the venue. The crowd gave him a real ovation, and that was appropriate (it doesn't mean the Yankees had to like it).
Wacha finishes having gone seven innings and given up two earned runs with five strikeouts. He gets nothing in the decision column either, which is the kind of afternoon that makes a pitching line look like it happened in a different game. Escarra went 3-for-4 and was quietly the best hitter on the field -- a line that usually disappears inside a comeback story, so here it is.
The Yankees are 32-22, back at Kauffman tomorrow, and 12-for-12 in games against this team going back to a playoff series. Some winning streaks carry their own momentum. This one they had to go out and fight for today, one bad slider at a time.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
