Yankees Recap: New York Yankees Fall to Royals 6-0

The New York Yankees lost the rubber match to the Kansas City Royals 6-0 on Sunday. Yankees starter Chris Capuano  (0-1) struggled in his return to action after missing the entire first part of the season with a quad injury. Royals pitcher Edinson Volquez  (3-3) looked very good against a stagnant Yankees offense who only mustered five hits against the Royals offense. It was “turn back the clock”  game for the Royals who played as the Monarchs in an homage to the negro leagues. The Yankees got into the action by wearing a patch to honor the late Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks.

Capuano returned to the rotation replacing the injured Chase Whitley. Capuano gave up four hits and four runs walking two batter through 3 plus innings. The Royals scoring deluge began with a Salvador Perez home run in the second inning as the Royals took a 1-0 lead. As Volquez continued to look sharp pitching a perfect three innings until Alex Rodriguez settled for a double after just missing a home run in the top of the fourth inning. Brian McCann struck out with runners on second and third to end the inning and that Yankees failed to score.

May 17, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals base runner

(6) rounds third to score against the New York Yankees during the fourth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

It was the bottom of the fourth where things unraveled for Capuano. After surviving three rocky innings he appeared fatigued in the fourth giving up two straight walks to Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer  before allowing an RBI single by Kendrys Morales. Royals lead 2-0 before another RBI single by Perez plated Hosmer and knocked Capuano out of the game.

Esmil Rogers replaced Capuano when he could not get anyone out in the 4th. Rogers promptly gave up an RBI double to Omar Infante allowing Morales and Perez  to score and giving Kansas City  4-0 lead. Rogers settled in and induced a ground out and struck out Jarrod Dyson to end the ending, but failed to clean up Capuano’s mess and allowed two runs to score.

In a game marred by ineffective  pitching and errors Rogers would give up two more runs in the sixth inning when Infante who reached on a Rogers’ throwing error scored on a Paulo Orlando double. Rogers would be replaced by Justin Wilson in the sixth, the Royals lead 6-0.

The Yankees did make it interesting in the late innings when they loaded the bases in the eighth against Royals’ reliever Wade Davis. Davis walked Didi Gregorius and Ellsbury and the speedy Brett Gardner reached on infield hit. But the scoring threat was shut down when Garrett Jones who replaced Mark Teixeira in the 8th (who has a toe bruise) grounded out to end the inning.

After Chasen Shreve had a solid eighth inning, the Yankees threatened again in the ninth. Carlos Beltran continues his revival when he doubled to extend his hitting streak to nine games. Headley singled to move Beltran to third, but the Yankees could not score and the game ended on nice play by Cain on a Gregorios bloop. The Royals win 6-0.

The Yankees have now lost five out of the last six and will be likely be grateful for a day off tomorrow. They return to action in Washington for a two game set against the Nationals on Tuesday where Nathan Eovaldi (3-1) will face Gio Gonzalez (3-2) with a scheduled 7:05 EST start.

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