In a game defined by timely hits, lockdown relief, and a flash of defensive brilliance, the New York Yankees edged the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on Wednesday night to complete a three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium. Aaron Judge and Fernando Cruz stole the spotlight — and then some.
Judge, who’s currently producing numbers straight out of a video game, blasted a go-ahead solo homer in the seventh inning that proved to be the difference. He reached base four times and went 3-for-3 with a walk, lifting his MLB-best batting average to .409 and OPS to a jaw-dropping 1.322. It was his first home run since April 4.
“That’s why we got him,” Judge said postgame of Cruz, who delivered a gutsy two-inning save in relief. “He came in and shut the door.”
Cruz, whose seventh and eighth innings were filled with tension, earned his first career save and did so while helping preserve a taxed bullpen. “He’s a superhuman,” Cruz said about Judge. “You just expect him to come through. It’s what he does.”
With a runner on second in the ninth and the game hanging in the balance, Cody Bellinger made a game-saving, full-extension catch in right field on MJ Melendez’s slicing liner to end it — a fitting exclamation point for a game full of grit and clutch execution.
“There’s a reason why he’s got gold on his glove,” Judge said of Bellinger’s game-ending grab. “Very few people make that catch, especially in a big moment like that.”
Yankees complete the sweep of the Royals
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Yankees manager Aaron Boone was all smiles after the game, especially about Judge’s laser-focused night at the plate. “Tonight was the most locked-in I’ve felt he was at-bat wise — he was on everything.”
The Yankees trailed early after Salvador Perez drove in a run in the first off Clarke Schmidt, who was making his season debut. But Schmidt, despite some early rust, found a rhythm and retired 11 straight at one point. He allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings before turning it over to the bullpen.
The Yankees’ offense answered in the third inning behind Anthony Volpe’s two-run double — a sigh of relief for the shortstop, who entered the night in a 2-for-23 slump. Bellinger, himself mired in a 5-for-43 skid, knocked in a run with an RBI double down the line in the fourth.
Kansas City clawed back to tie it 3-3 in the fifth, but once again, Judge stepped up. He led off the seventh by demolishing a John Schreiber sinker into the right-center bullpen for his seventh homer of the year. The Yankees wouldn’t trail again.
Mark Leiter Jr. got four crucial outs in relief before handing it off to Cruz, who shut things down with poise and power.
The Yankees improved to 11-7 and wrapped up a 4-2 homestand with momentum in tow as they head to Tampa. With Judge swinging the hottest bat in baseball, the bullpen delivering under pressure, and the defense flashing Gold Glove moments, the Bronx Bombers are beginning to look dangerous.
