At least for one day, the Yankees spared themselves the drama.
After each of their past five wins had come by taking the lead for good in their final at-bats, the Yankees jumped ahead early Saturday and kept piling on — against a lefty starter, to boot — while Will Warren turned on cruise control.
Cody Bellinger crushed two of four Yankees home runs and drove in five while Warren dominated across seven innings as the Yankees breezed to a 13-4 win over the Royals on a sunny afternoon in The Bronx.
The Yankees (12-9) had not won a game like this since the home opener April 3, having to grind for everything in between with nothing coming easy — including 11 of their 13 games in that stretch decided by two runs or less, the exceptions coming in blowout losses.
But they finally synced up strong pitching and strong hitting on the same day, which made for a much-needed laugher — so much so that Aaron Judge, who had played every inning of every game, got the final three innings off — as they tried to finally break out of this early-season funk.
That the Yankees did it against a left-hander made it even more encouraging, after southpaws had given them troubles through the early going. Entering Saturday, their .535 OPS against lefties was the second-lowest mark in the majors, and they were 2-4 against lefty starters.
Royals lefty Noah Cameron offered little in the way of resistance, though, as the Yankees got to him for seven runs across four innings — keyed by a five-run third inning in which Amed Rosario, Bellinger and Ben Rice all went deep.
That alone was more than enough run support for Warren, who tied a career high with 11 strikeouts while easily turning in his best start of the season. Getting ahead early and often, he scattered three hits through the first six innings before finally giving up a two-run homer to Carter Jensen in the seventh, the only damage against him all day.
The Yankees third-inning rally began with a gift, when J.C. Escarra hit a fly ball to the gap that was dropped in a collision between right fielder Jac Caglianone and center fielder Kyle Isbel. Rosario came up next and slugged his third home run of the year for the 2-0 lead.
After Judge walked, Bellinger visited the second deck in right field for his first home run of the day that made it 4-0.
One out later, Rice went even deeper into the second deck, homering for the third straight game and his second left-on-left homer of the season.
Escarra added on in the fourth inning by roping an RBI double to the gap, then came around to score on Bellinger’s RBI single for the 7-0 lead.
Rosario drove in another run on a single in the sixth before Bellinger left the yard again, another two-run shot that made it 10-0.
After Jensen broke up the shutout in the top of the seventh, Escarra got those two runs back in the bottom of the frame when he hit his first career triple past the dive of Caglianone in right field.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
