Yankees ride Warren, Bellinger to 13-4 rout of Royals
- Davis Cornell
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
The Yankees dismantled the Royals 13-4 to win the series behind a magnificent start from Will Warren, who faced off against Noah Cameron.
Warren served up a lead-off double but struck out Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, then got Jac Caglianone to fly out to deep center to work into and out of trouble.
In the bottom of the first, Royals manager Matt Quatraro was ejected from the game before Cameron could even throw a pitch. Aaron Judge then drew a one-out four-pitch walk. But Cody Bellinger bounced into a fielder's choice, and Giancarlo Stanton popped out.
Warren worked a 1-2-3 top of the second inning with a couple of strikeouts, putting his punchout total up to four.
J.C. Escarra made it to third base on an E8 from Kyle Isbel in the bottom of the third. Amed Rosario followed with a two-run bomb to left, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Judge then worked his second four-pitch walk of the ballgame, then Belli crushed a two-run homer of his own into the second deck in right, his second of the year.
"Yeah, I felt like I liked where I was at my first at-bat," Belli said. "And, you know, I just wanted to continue just taking my swing and, you know, just, whatever happens after that happens."
A few batters later, Ben Rice crushed a solo shot lefty on lefty crime into the second deck for his seventh home run of the year, making it 5-0.
José Caballero led off the bottom of the fourth with a line drive single to left. Escarra followed with an RBI double. A couple of batters later, Belli lined an RBI single to right center, his second knock of the game and third RBI to make it a 7-0 ballgame.
Warren struck out the side in the top of the fifth inning; two of those were looking, putting his punchout total up to nine for the ballgame.
In the top of the sixth, Warren got the Royals to go three up, three down and recorded his 10th punchout of the game in the process.
Rosario made it an 8-0 Yankees lead in the bottom of the frame via an RBI base knock up the middle, his third RBI of the afternoon.
A couple of batters later, Belli crushed his second home run of the ballgame, another two-run bomb to make it 10-0.
"I thought I was going to go way further than that, I'm not gonna lie," Belli said. "So I'm just glad it got out. And, the wind was blowing a little bit today, but I'm glad it got out."
Warren had his lone blemish of the afternoon in the top of the seventh when he served up a two-run home run to Carter Jensen.
Ecarra got those runs right back in the bottom of the inning with a two-run triple, the first triple of his career, to make it a 12-2 game.
Paul Blackburn replaced Warren on the mound in the top of the eighth inning and retired the Royals in order.
Warren's final line: He tossed seven innings, surrendering five hits, two runs, no walks, and struck out 11 to match a career high on 93 pitches. Warren threw his fastball over half the time at 53%, the sweeper 20%, the sinker 16%, the changeup 10%, and the curveball 1% of the time. Warren topped out at 96.2 mph and averaged 93.7 on the fastball and had 11 swings and misses in the ballgame.
"Attacking the zone, trusting my stuff," Warren said. "And then obviously, the offense was banging today, so it's really nice to go out there with a lead… I think everything was moving good and then just execution overall was good."
Randal Grichuk extended the Yankees' lead to 13-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly.
Blackburn remained in the game for the top of the ninth and allowed Michael Massey to make it a 13-4 game with a two-run double, then picked up the final out of the ballgame.
The Yankees will look to sweep the Royals tomorrow with Ryan Weathers on the mound facing Cole Ragans. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: A much-needed blowout win for the Yankees to take the series. Warren was excellent today, with Gerrit Cole and Corlos Rodon on the way back, the Yankees face a tough decision on who to move to the bullpen. Warren is making his case to remain in the rotation. The offense was unstoppable today, tallying 11 hits and 13 runs. Belli went 3-for-4 with a couple of long balls and five RBIs. Rosario had a couple of knocks with three RBIs and a home run to get the scoring started. Rice just continues to hit, crushing his third homer in as many games. Rice now leads the MLB with a 1.242 OPS and a .774 slugging percentage. Caballero and Escarra also each had multi-hit games. Jazz was hitless yet again as he continues to struggle with a lefty starting tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if they give him a day off and start Rosario at second. Stanton was also 0-for-5 as he is now 1-for-his-last-21 and will most likely get the day off tomorrow to allow Boone to start Rice and Goldy. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to complete the sweep.
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