The Yankees and Royals begun their four-game set in the Bronx. The Yankees came into this series dead last in the AL East, while the Royals went 2-4 over their last week (AL Central Week 5 Recap).

Game 1 – Nova vs. Young

Yankees Pitching:

Nova’s outing was serviceable. He threw his sinker almost 70% of the time to get in on righties. His curve consisted of around one-fourth of his pitches. Nova relied heavily on those two pitches as he only flashed his changeup three times. He was able to handle righties quite well but lefties were able to capitalize on his sinker when his command was off. Here is his zone profile:

He pounded the Royals righties inside, and threw his curve into lefties. No wonder Nova has such a good groundball rate. His final line: 4.2 IP 6 H 1 ER 1 BB 3 Ks

Yankees Offense:

The Yankees bats were on fire in the game, with five home runs off Chris Young. Carlos Beltran had two, Brian McCann had one, and Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks had back-to-back dingers. All within three innings and all solo home runs. Young is the first pitcher to allow five homers to the Yankees since Clay Buchholz back in 2012. The Yankees added a run in the 7th, when Hicks hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Chase Headley.

Royals Pitching:

Then there is Chris Young. He is an extreme fly ball pitcher (70%) pitching at Yankee Stadium which is usually not going to end well. His final line: 2.2 IP 6 H 5 ER 2 Ks 5 HRs (!!!). Most notable aspect of his line (indicated by the three exclamation points) is the five home runs. From Mike Petriello, here is Young’s fastball location on fastballs:

Royals Offense:

The Royals offense scored some runs off the long ball as well. In the 2nd inning, Alex Gordon hit a home run off a sinker right down the middle into deep center field. The home run must have felt great for Gordon as he has been struggling recently. Eric Hosmer tacked on another run with a solo shot to left off Chasen Shreve in the 8th. It was Hosmer’s sixth home run of the year. Surprisingly, the Royals scored a run against new Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. After the first two Royals struck out, Paulo Orlando doubled then Alcides Escobar drove him in with a single. Luckily for the Yankees, that ended there with Chapman retiring Lorenzo Cain.

Yankees take Game 1 with a score of 6-3.

Game 2: Tanaka vs. Medlen

What a back and forth game. There were clutch hits and poor pitching with both teams.

Yankees Offense:

The Yankees loaded the bases right in the first inning but only managed one run off a Dustin Ackley sacrifice fly. In the next inning, Headley tied the game at 2-2 with a single to drive in Gregorius. Small ball Yankees were alive which was vastly different from the Bronx Bombers showing the previous game.

In the 3rd inning, Gregorius slapped a double to right center to drive in three runs, giving the Yankees a seemingly commanding 5-3 lead. That did not hold up as they trailed 6-5 going into the 7th inning. Against Joakim Soria, the Yankees managed a tie (Ackley single) and secure the lead (Hicks double) off two clutch hits. That lead did not last either.

The Royals tied it up in the 8th but the Yankees answered back. Ben Gamel reached on a costly error by Escobar then Gardner drove him in with a double. McCann continued the inning with a big two-run double. 10-7 Yankees.

Yankees Pitching:

Tanaka had a bad night. He pitched 7 IP 7 H 6 ER 4 Ks 3 HRs (!). At times Tanaka looked dominating but struggled to pitch accordingly to the weakness of the Royals offense. The Royals are a contact-first team and Tanaka threw too many pitches over the plate that the Royals were able to capitalize on. The big problem was the home runs; more specifically, three home runs to Cain. In Tanaka’s previous 39 IP, he gave up two home runs but three in one night. Hopefully it was a blimp and won’t be reoccurring.

Royals Offense:

The Royals rode the long-ball in Game 2 with four home runs in total, and three by Cain.

Cheslor Cuthbert hit his first home run in his ML career off Tanaka in the 2nd inning. Cuthbert is starting for the Royals as the Moose is injured. Now, we begin the tale of Cain’s home runs:

First dinger: Solo shot off a Tanaka fastball into right center. 3-2 Royals.

Second dinger: Three-run bomb off Tanaka on a bad slider. The exit velocity hit 108 mph and went 445 ft. Absolutely crushed. 6-5 Royals.

Third dinger: Yankee Stadium cheapie off a hanging Andrew Miller slider to tied the game up at 7-7 in the 8th.

Cain had an opportunity to make the game interesting in the 9th and possibly hit his fourth home run but Chapman retired him after a nine pitch at-bat. However, Cain’s wRC+ rose from 76 to 105 wrC+.

Royals Pitching:

The Royals starting pitching was again shaky with a terrible start by Kris Medlen. Medlen went 2 IP 6 H 4 ER 3 BB 0 Ks. His fastball and curveball control was all over the place as he could not consistently located the strike zone. Here’s his zone profile:

Lots of pitches out of the zone, as depicted. Just like Young last game, the Royals starting pitching control has been dismal.

Game 2 goes to the Yankees. 10-7 final.

Game 3: Pineda vs. Ventura

Yankees Pitching:

Michael Pineda got off to a bad start…again. This is becoming a habit for Pineda as his command was all over the place. Pineda now has a 15.43 ERA in the first inning alone. The Royals had six men reach base, capped off with a three-run home run by Salvador Perez.

Hanging slider right over the plate. Perez took the pitch into left field.

Pineda did settle down after the first inning, only giving up one hit and no runs after the 1st. No one can really explain Pineda’s drastic 1st inning troubles. His command was off and could not get his fastball over for strikes. But that only seems to happen in the 1st inning. It is very puzzling for Pineda and the Yankees. His final line: 5.1 IP 6 H 1 ER 4 BB 7 Ks

Yankees Offense:

The offense had opportunities but they did not take advantage. Beltran started the scoring with a solo shot. He has really improved his batting since being placed in the DH spot. His legs and arms are getting a much needed rest. Headley made it 4-2 with a RBI single but the Yankees left the bases loaded after that.

The Yankees had runners at second and third and no outs with the middle of the order but McCann grounded out to first to make it 4-3 but that’s all they got. The Yankees only managed two more hits the rest of the game.

Royals Pitching:

Vordano Ventura pitched a quality game with 6 IP 6 H 3 ER 3 BB 1 K. Ventura only managed one strike out which is surprising. Ventura’s K% is down from 23% to 15% this year. His fastball average velo hit 95 mph but his SwStr% is only 8.1% for the year. He is not missing bats which is the key to a pitcher’s success. When hitters can square up Ventura’s pitches, he will be hit hard.

The Royals bullpen was stellar; a combination of Danny Duffy, Kelvin Herrera, and Wade Davis pitched three innings of one hit, three strike outs work.

Royals Offense:

The Royals, of course, put up four runs in the first. The Royals loaded the bases with no outs then Gordon hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to drive in a run. The next batter, Perez, hit a home run to left field. 4-0 Royals. The Royals tacked on two more runs in 6th inning via a Cain single with the bases loaded. Then Kendrys Morales hit a home run to right field in the 7th.

Royals take Game 3 by winning 7-3.

Game 4: Eovaldi vs. Kennedy

Yankees Pitching:

Eovaldi was shaky through his start. He pitched 5 IP 8 H 3 ER 2 BB 3 Ks. Eovaldi got into many favorable counts but he was unable to put away batters. He also suffered from the “two-out problem” similar to Pineda. This hurt Evo in the 4th and 5th inning when he got two quick outs but he gave up hits in two strike counts. This situation led to two of the three earned runs.

Yankees Offense:

The team rode the long ball for the second time in this series with three home runs. Castro hit his 4th home run of the year on an inside fastball into right field. The next two runs were scored via a two-run opposite field home run by … wait for it… Chase Headley! His first XBH of the year was a big one. Gregorius hit the third home run to make the score 4-2. The Yankees tacked on three runs in the 7th inning.

Royals Offense:

Gordon was the main source of offense for the Royals. He hit a solo shot in the 4th inning, then singled in Hosmer in the 5th inning. That was it for the Royals. The offense could not string together enough hits to pose a scoring threat.

Royals Pitching:

Kennedy came back to the Bronx and pitched for the first time ever at the new Yankees Stadium. He pitched 6.1 IP 5 H 7 ER 3 BB 6 Ks. His outing proved why the Yankees traded Kennedy – he gives up many fly balls and in Yankee Stadium, fly balls usually turn into home runs. He had good command of his fastball and off-speed pitches but the fly balls really hurt him. He even seemed Kennedy pitched better than Eovaldi.

Yankees take Game 4 and win the series 3-1.

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Previous Recaps:

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox Series Recap

New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles Series Recap

New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays Series Recap