Volpe’s clutch hit lifts Yankees past Royals
- Davis Cornell
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
The Yankees took down the Royals 4-3 in a come-from-behind win. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Michael Wacha.
In the top of the first inning, Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice went three up, three down on just eight pitches.
Warren matched Wacha in the bottom half of the first, firing a 1-2-3 inning and recording his first strikeout of the ballgame.
Cody Bellinger wasted no time getting the scoring started in the second inning, crushing the first pitch he saw deep to right for a solo shot, his first home run away from the Bronx this year, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Anthony Volpe worked a two-out free pass. J.C. Escarra followed with a single to left center, allowing Volpe to go first to third. Then José Caballero drove in Volpe via an RBI base knock to make it 2-0.
Warren walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning with one out. Michael Massey cut the Yankees' lead in half thanks to a sacrifice fly.
Judge led off the top of the third inning with a bullet double, 110.9 mph off the bat into the right-center gap. Rice grounded out to second, moving Judge up to third with one out. But Belli popped out, and Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to strand Judge at third.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a leadoff walk in the top of the fourth, and Escarra sent a base hit up the middle, allowing Jazz to go first to third, putting runners at the corners with one out. However, Caballero bounced into a 5-4-3 double play as the Yankees failed to capitalize with a runner on third and one out for a second straight inning. Volpe also didn't help matters by swinging at a pitch at his eyes to strike out for the first out, but thankfully, he made up for it when it mattered most.
Salvador Perez tied the ballgame in the bottom of the sixth inning with a no-doubt solo bomb to left.
Brent Headrick replaced Warren on the mound in the bottom of the seventh and allowed a double that should have been caught but dropped in between Grisham, Judge and Jazz with an eBA of .010. Headrick picked up the second out, then handed the baseball over to Jake Bird and induced a groundout to end the inning and keep the ballgame tied.
Final line for Warren: Six innings pitched, three hits allowed, two earned runs, walking three, and striking out three on 85 pitches. He threw his fastball 52% of the time, the sinker 19%, the sweeper 16%, the changeup 8%, and the curveball 5%. He topped out at 95.4 mph and sat at 93.1 on his heater, inducing seven swings and misses.
“I think I was a little out of sync today,” Warren said. “Kind of spraying it, but at the end of the day, I think it's not the time to go try to fix anything. It's just bear down and compete, and I think we did a good job of that, and we held them to just two runs.”
Bird came back out for the bottom of the eighth and hung a curveball to Bobby Witt Jr., and he doloshed a solo home run to give the Royals a 3-2 lead. Bird then walked a batter and picked up the first out. Tim Hill took over and picked up the final two outs to end the inning and strand a runner at second.
In the top of the ninth inning, Goldy legged out a one-out infield single. Jazz followed with a hustle double to right field, putting two runners in scoring position with one out for Volpe. Volpe came through with a two-run single to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead.
“I mean, in that situation, I was trying to put the ball in play, so my approach didn't really change that much,” Volpe said when he was asked if his approach changed after falling behind in the count 0-2. “With the count, I just want to get a good pitch and just put it in play.”
Yankees closer David Bednar got the call for the bottom of the ninth and picked up the final three outs to record the save and give the Yankees a 4-3 win.
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Cam Schlittler on the mound; the Royals starter is still TBD. The first pitch is slated for 7:40 p.m. CT on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: First off, happy Memorial Day; forever grateful for the fallen heroes who protected our great nation. Great come-from-behind win for the Yankees, and the Rays lost, so the Yankees gained a game on them, now 3.5 games back. Warren delivered a quality start; his command was off in the second inning, leading to a run. It seemed like he was nibbling more than usual today, but still delivered a great start even though it didn't feel like he had his best stuff. Headrick was solid; he should have worked a 1-2-3 inning, but didn't get any help from his defense. Bird wasn't great today, but he has been much better in May, giving up just two runs in eight innings pitched so far. Hill picked up two huge outs to keep the deficit at one run. And Bednar got the job done, picking up the save, but did walk a batter, which I hate seeing closers do. Escarra had three hits today; I wouldn't mind seeing him get even more playing time with Austin Wells struggling mightily. Belli crushed his seventh homer of the year to get the scoring started. And Cabby got the start at third base today, with Ryan McMahon continuing to struggle, and had an RBI single and played some great defense. Jazz looked like he twisted his ankle in the ninth inning on his double, but thankfully, he was okay. And Volpe with the biggest swing of the day with a huge go-ahead two-run single. The Yankees' offense left some meat on the bone in the early innings, falling to bring across a run with a runner on third and one out back-to-back innings, but no harm, no foul. On to tomorrow as the Yankees have a great opportunity to win the series with Schlittler on the mound and Gerrit Cole starting on Wednesday.
“It was ankle-round at first base,” Jazz said. “But I'm good, you know. Got to stay in there, score runs, play the game.”
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