Yankees blank Royals behind another vintage Cole start
- Davis Cornell
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
The Yankees shut out the Royals 7-0 to complete the sweep and make it 14 straight wins against the Royals dating back to the 2024 ALDS. Gerrit Cole made his second start of the season and faced off against Noah Cameron.
In the top of the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice and Aaron Judge went three up, three down.
Cole worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning thanks to a beautiful catch in left from José Caballero and a pair of strikeouts.
Cole retired the Royals in order in the bottom of the second inning and recorded two more punchouts to put his total up to four.
It looked like the Royals were going to potentially get on the board in the bottom of the third, but Judge made a perfect throw to gun down the runner at the plate. Cole also picked up two more strikeouts in the inning.
“I thought the game really got going with Judge's play,” Cole said. “He set the tone, I mean, I was kind of caught in the middle. I thought that run was gonna score for sure, and I might have to back up second base, and I mean he was dead to rights, and I thought that just kind of elevated our play a little bit, and we rolled from there.”
Goldy led off the fourth inning with a single to left field. Rice followed with an RBI triple off the base of the left field wall to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Judge then drove in Rice with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
“I just reminded myself that I got time,” Rice said of his approach tonight against Cameron. “I got to see the ball deep and see it up in the zone, get something to drive. And yeah, I was able to work a couple of good ones there.”
The Royals went three up, three down as Cole recorded his seventh strikeout to finish off a shutdown bottom of the fourth inning. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Cole retired the Royals in order and picked up two more strikeouts to put his total up to nine for the ballgame.
Goldy led off the sixth inning with a base hit to right field, then Rice worked a 10-pitch walk to put two aboard with nobody out for Judge. However, Judge bounced into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play, and Cody Bellinger flew out to end the frame.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Cole navigated around a two-out double and picked up his 10th strikeout of the night to work another scoreless frame.
Trent Grisham pinch hit for Amed Rosario to lead off the seventh inning and lined a single to left. Anthony Volpe followed with a walk, putting two on with no outs. Then Ryan McMahon dunked a bloop single into center, loading the bases. But Caballero flew out, Austin Wells struck out on three pitches, as the Yankees were in danger of stranding the bases loaded with nobody out. Then Goldy worked a bases-loaded walk to bring across a run and make it 3-0. Rice then sent a two-run single through the right side of the infield to extend the Yankees' lead to 5-0.
Cole picked up the first two outs of the bottom of the inning, sandwiched in between a one-out single. Fernando Cruz replaced Cole and picked up the third out.
Final line for Cole: 6.2 shutout innings, four hits allowed, didn't walk anybody, and struck out 10 on 79 pitches. He threw his fastball 37% of the time, the slider 23%, the changeup 18%, the knuckle curve 15%, the sinker 6%, and the cutter 1%. Cole topped out at 98.4, averaging 96.3 mph on his heater, with 15 swings and misses.
“At certain points, I felt I had a little bit of everything working,” Cole said. “That doesn't happen very often. It's a good night when it comes together like that.”
With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, McMahon sent a two-run bomb to left into the Yankees' bullpen, making it 7-0.
Cruz came back out for the bottom of the eighth and worked a 1-2-3 inning. Camilo Doval got the call for the bottom of the ninth and retired the Royals in order to help the Yankees complete the sweep.
The Yankees will have an off day tomorrow, then head to Sacramento for a quick three-game West Coast trip against the A’s starting Friday. Carlos Rodon will take the mound for the Yankees and face off against former Yankee Luis Severino. First pitch is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Cole is just unbelievable; I missed watching him so much, as he just completely shut down the Royals. Cruz and Doval combined to pick up the final seven outs. Doval was bringing the heat, topping out at 102.8 mph, the hardest pitch thrown by a Yankee this year. The offense was great with seven runs and eight hits. Goldy had a couple of hits and an RBI. Rice had two hits with three RBIs; he is now hitting .290 with a 1.006 OPS. Grisham got on base two times off the bench with a single and a walk, coming around to score both times. And McMahon had a multi-hit game as well with a bomb late to put the nail in the coffin for the Royals. The Yankees won their fourth straight game, and the Rays lost their fourth straight, meaning the Yankees are now just 1.5 games back in the AL East. Just a great series all around and a couple of much-needed stress-free wins. On to Friday, as the Yankees will look to make it five straight wins.
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