Yankees Highlights: J.A. Happ, Luke Voit blast Yankees past Royals

With a doubleheader against the struggling Royals, the Yankees have a chance today to really tack on to their AL-East lead. They got right to work this afternoon, cruising past the Royals by a score of 7-3. Kansas City briefly tied the game in the sixth, but otherwise, the Yankees led wire-to-wire to secure the victory in game one.

Winner of the Game

Lots of good choices today in a game full of strong performances, but Luke Voit’s two-run home run in the seventh provided the margin of victory. Voit finished with two hits, and his 470-foot crime against cowhide was the biggest play of the game:

Honorable mention: Too many to get to, but J.A. Happ’s start, which featured 10 strikeouts and no walks, was excellent overall, and Brett Gardner banged out three hits, including a triple, and stole a base. Thairo Estrada also notched a pair of knocks and RBI.

Loser of the Game

On days where it’s difficult to choose a winner, it follows that it can be hard to choose a loser. We’ll mention Gleyber Torres here, though, as he didn’t get into the scoring and went 0-5 with a pair of strikeouts. He’ll hopefully get another chance to make an impact later tonight, as the Yankees go with something of a bullpen game against Royals right-hander Jorge Lopez.

Chart

FanGraphs