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Following an off day for both teams, the New York Yankees travel to Kansas City to take on the Royals at the start of a three-game set at 7:40 PM ET on TBS tomorrow night. New York is in first place in the American League East with a 39-25 overall record. The Yankees have one of the best road records in the majors at 18-13. That includes six wins in their last eight contests away from the Bronx.
Kansas City is 34-32 and in fourth in the American League Central. The Royals are 19-13 at home this season. The Royals have lost four of their last six games at Kaufmann Stadium. New York swept a three-game series over Kansas City at Yankee Stadium in mid-April. Aaron Judge batted .700 (7-for-10) in the series, while the Yankees held the Royals to six runs and 12 hits in the three games.
Let’s break down each team’s recent performance and make our Yankees @ Royals pick for Tuesday night’s series opener.
The Yankees have firm command of the AL East, but they dropped a weekend series at home to the rival Boston Red Sox, losing two straight after taking the opener Friday night. Judge went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs, but New York’s pitching was roughed up in an 11-7 defeat last night. Six Yankees pitchers allowed 12 hits, including 5 homers, as Boston pounded out 26 hits in the series’ final two games.
Carlos Rodon had won seven straight decisions but allowed 5 runs on 3 hits and 5 walks in 5.0 innings to fall to 8-4. Five New York relievers surrendered 6 runs on 9 hits in the final 4.0 innings. Judge had 3 hits twice in the series and has now had 3+ in 10 games this season. The six-time All-Star and two-time AL MVP’s .396 batting average is far and away the best in the majors. His 23 home runs and 55 RBIs have him in the thick of a Triple Crown race.
Tomorrow night’s starter is Max Fried, one of the best free-agent acquisitions of the offseason. The former Atlanta Braves hurler is 8-1 with a 1.78 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 77 strikeouts. After getting hammered in his first loss of the season at the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fried returned to form Thursday evening, allowing no runs on 1 hit and striking out 7 in 6.0 innings of a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. He goes for his Major League-leading ninth win tomorrow night.
Like the Yankees, Kansas City dropped 2-of-3 over the weekend, albeit to the lowly Chicago White Sox. The Royals salvaged the series with a 7-5 victory last night. Rookie Jac Caglianone went 4-for-4, Jonathan India had 3 hits and 2 RBIs, while Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez homered as the top six Royals batters in the order accounted for 14 hits. Michael Lorenzen, who was 0-3 with a 6.89 ERA in his previous starts, picked up his first win since April, allowing 2 runs on just 1 hit for the win.
Witt Jr. finished runner-up to Judge in last year’s AL MVP voting. He is having another All-Star-caliber season, batting .291 with a .842 OPS, 8 home runs, 37 RBIs and 21 stolen bases. Vinnie Pasquantino is batting .280 with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs. Closer Carlos Estevez leads the American League with 19 saves. Tomorrow night’s starter, native Missourian Noah Cameron, has been sparkling in his first five Major League starts. The 6’3”, 225-pound left-hander took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his Major League debut against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cameron has not allowed more than one run while tossing at least 6.0 innings in each of his five outings. He currently boasts a 2-1 record with a 0.85 ERA and 0.79 WHIP.
Cameron has been a revelation for Kansas City, but Fried is the superstar taking the hill tomorrow night. The two-time All-Star has been lights out for New York, making Yankees fans quickly forget about Gerrit Cole.
Fried is top-5 in several pitching categories and has allowed 2 earned runs or less in 11-of-13 outings. He has 77 strikeouts, averaging 5.92 K’s per start. He has recorded 6+ strikeouts in five of his last seven starts, and the expectation is that he will do so again tomorrow night.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.