Yankees Highlights: Bombers’ thrilling rally not enough as Royals walk off

The Yankees nearly pulled it off. Down 7-1 through five, the Bombers staged a thrilling comeback to tie the game in the ninth. Had they pushed another run across, they very well might have won their eighth straight and swept both the Royals and their road trip. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, as former Yankee Ian Kennedy managed to blow the save but not the entire game, keeping the game tied into extras where the Royals walked off in the tenth.

Winner of the Game

The Yankees did put up seven runs, but that strong offensive output was more of a group effort than the result of any particularly huge individual games. We can highlight Gleyber Torres, though, as the young infielder probably had the best day of any Yankee. He bounced back from a hitless doubleheader yesterday to keep the Yankees in the game today, notching a pair of hits, including a three-run blast in the sixth that gave the Yankees a shot. His slash line on the year now sits at .290/.335/.549, good for a 129 wRC+. That’s excellent work from perhaps the only high-profile hitter on the Yankees to remain healthy pretty much all season so far.

Honorable mention: Nestor Cortes, who acquitted himself fairly well with four shutout innings in relief, helping spare the team’s bullpen after Saturday’s twinbill.

Loser of the Game

Here’s an easy one. The regression gods came for Domingo German, as the Royals tagged him for seven runs in five innings on four home runs. Home run rates can fluctuate wildly at times, and German’s HR/9 rate, which sat at 0.81 entering the game, ballooned to 1.34 thanks to one poor start. He did strike out six and walked none, as he is wont to do almost regardless of how his overall start goes. Unfortunately, even as he missed bats, German couldn’t keep the ball in the park on a warm day in Kansas City, and it cost him.

Honorable mention: Jonathan Holder, whose walk of Billy Hamilton led to the Royals’ eventual walk-off.

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FanGraphs