The Yankees are apparently trying to commandeer it for their own use.
Continuing a season-long trend that has accentuated the depth of their lineup, the Yankees struck for five runs in the second inning Wednesday and rode that to a 6-3 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
Clarke Schmidt made sure the one big inning was enough as he tossed six shutout innings while striking out seven to help clinch the series victory for the Yankees (41-25), who will go for the sweep on Thursday.
“I just think our lineup’s really good and really deep,” said Cody Bellinger, who got the five-run rally started with a leadoff triple. “It’s a lot of unselfish at-bats. We’re all getting ready for the next guy. Try to do your job, get on base and the next guy will take care of it. We’re doing a really good job right now.”
Aaron Judge added an insurance run with his 25th home run of the year, a 413-foot solo shot in the seventh inning.
He finished the night batting .394 with a 1.269 OPS.
The Royals (34-34) scored three runs off Mark Leiter Jr. in a sloppy bottom of the ninth, but Devin Williams came on to calm the waters and pick up his eighth save of the year.
The outburst in the second marked the 17th time this season the Yankees have scored five or more runs in an inning after doing so in 15 innings all of last season.
Making this one more impressive was that it came against the starter who had been the best in the major leagues at preventing runs entering the night.
Royals lefty Kris Bubic came into the game with a 1.43 ERA on the season, having allowed just three earned runs over his past six starts spanning 39 ¹/₃ innings.
He had not allowed more than four runs in any of his first 12 starts, but then gave up five to the Yankees in the second inning alone.
“It’s a testament to those guys,” manager Aaron Boone said. “A lot of those guys [are] obviously in the middle of really good years. I think the trust and communication they have with one another within innings, within games, allows them to continue to put up good at-bats, which puts you in position to have some big innings.”
This one happened in a hurry, sparked by Bellinger’s triple.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. — before he exited the game in the fifth inning with left groin tightness that did not have Boone overly concerned postgame — followed by working an eight-pitch walk before Anthony Volpe grounded into a fielder’s choice for the 1-0 lead.
With two outs, after DJ LeMahieu drew a four-pitch walk, Austin Wells stayed hot by drilling an RBI double to make it 2-0.
The catcher had five RBIs in Tuesday’s 10-2 win and is batting .311 (14-for-45) with a .973 OPS over his past 13 games.
Wells’ 42 RBIs through 66 team games have him on pace for 103 over the full season, which would make him the first Yankees catcher to eclipse the century mark since Jorge Posada in 2003.
That flipped the order over for Paul Goldschmidt, who roped a two-run single to right before Ben Rice followed with an RBI single that extended the lead to 5-0.
Four of the runs came with two outs, which is how the Yankees scored eight of their 10 runs Tuesday night.
“After the first inning, you go down there and you’re sitting in the tunnel and you come back up and see we put up a big spot like that,” said Schmidt, who scattered just two hits and three walks. “It’s, ‘All right, now I’m going to come out on the attack and I got to go deeper in this game and give my team the best chance to win by putting up as many zeroes as I can as quick as possible.’ ”
win over the Royals.AP
Trent Grisham helped the cause — and earned himself a bottle of wine from Schmidt, the pitcher said — with two superb diving catches in center field to help keep the shutout intact.
He also threw Maikel Garcia out at second when he tried to stretch a single into a double in the fourth inning.
“It picks me up,” Grisham said. “I don’t think my at-bats were all that good tonight [0-for-3 with a walk]. I had one really bad one at the end. So making those plays and staying locked in defensively just tells me a lot about where I’m at mentally. If I’m able to do that, I like where I’m at.”