Luke Voit leads Yankees to sixth win a row

It remains to be seen if the weather will hold up for the second game of the doubleheader—or tomorrow, for that matter—but at least the Yankees won one game today!

The Bombers wasted no time getting to Jakob Junis, who has struggled through the first inning of his starts this season. Aaron Hicks worked a leadoff walk, Luke Voit singled, then Clint Frazier drove in both runs with a two-out double to give the Yankees an early lead. They tacked on another run in the sixth after Brett Gardner tripled to right, and Gio Urshela brought him home with a sac fly.

J.A. Happ has been pretty awful this year, but he looked a lot better this afternoon. He allowed just one hit to the Royals through five scoreless innings. Then the sixth inning happened. Billy Hamilton reached on a bunt, Nicky Lopez singled, and Whit Merrifield jumped on a mistake and sent the ball out of the park. It’s not a Happ outing if he doesn’t give up at least one home run, apparently. On the plus side, he picked up ten strikeouts, and it was overall a much better outing for him.

Happ’s mistake tied up the game, but not for long. With one out in the seventh, Hicks singled, and Voit absolutely crushed a two-run bomb to left field. It traveled 470 feet with an exit velocity of 109 mph. The first baseman is from Missouri, so a huge cheering section of family and friends were on hand to witness the death of this baseball:

The Yankees scored their final two runs in the eighth inning after Thairo Estrada knocked a two-run double to left. That was all they needed to win the game. On the other side of things, Adam Ottavino and Luis Cessa combined for three scoreless innings, which leaves the bullpen well-rested for tonight’s game.

The second game of this doubleheader is scheduled for 8:15, and Chad Green is slated to be the opener.