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New York Yankees Recap: Alex Rodriguez Makes More History As Yankees Sweep Royals

ByRicky Keeler|

Wednesday afternoon brought about more history at Yankee Stadium for Yankees’ designated hitter Alex Rodriguez. In the bottom of the third inning, A-Rod would hit a three-run home run to left field off Chris Young to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead. With that home run, A-Rod passed Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for third on the all-time list in RBI’s and most in American League history. RBI’s were a stat that first started being kept track of in 1920.

Plus, Michael Pineda got back on track with a solid performance in New York’s 4-2 win, which gives them a sweep of the Kansas City Royals (28-18). Over the course of these three games, the Bronx Bombers outscored the Royals by a score of 23-4.

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Before the game, Yankees fans had their eyes on a triple-A game in Pawtucket, where Masahiro Tanaka made his second rehab start. It was not the start that Tanaka hoped for. In three innings of work, he gave up three runs on four hits, struck out four, and walked two on 62 pitches. Pawtucket outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. went 2-for-2 against him with a double to leadoff the first and a home run in the bottom of the third.

One hour after the first pitch in Pawtucket, the game did not start well for the Yankees in the Bronx. Mike Moustakas, who went 4-for-5 vs. the Yankees back on May 15 against Michael Pineda, hit a slider from Pineda into the bleachers in right field. His fifth home run of the season gave the Royals a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, the Yankees would get that run back. Brian McCann led off the second inning with a solo home run to right field against Chris Young. His sixth home run of the season tied the game at one. During that inning, Carlos Beltran would tap an infield single to the pitcher to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.

New York would follow up that run in the second with three more runs in the third. After a leadoff double by Brett Gardner and a walk to Chase Headley, A-Rod lined a slider over the wall in left field for a three-run home run. His 11th of the season put the Yankees in front, 4-1. With two hits today, Rodriguez is now 19 hits shy of 3,000 for his career.

Coming into the day, Royals starter Chris Young (4-1, 1.55) had only given up three earned runs all season. Young went six innings, gave up four runs on seven hits, struck out seven, and walked two. However, he picked up his first loss of the 2015 season.

Those four runs scored by New York were all that Michael Pineda (6-2, 3.39) would need. After that first inning, Pineda was able to settle into a groove. He went 6.2 innings, gave up one run on six hits, struck out eight and walked one on 106 pitches.

Kansas City’s best chance against Pineda came in the fifth as they had runners on second and third with one out. However, the Yankees’ right-hander would get Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain to strike out swinging with cut fastballs to end the scoring threat.

After Justin Wilson finished the top of the seventh, Dellin Betances came in to pitch the eighth for the second straight day. Lorenzo Cain would leadoff the inning by drawing a walk. Two batters later, with Cain on second and one out, Kendrys Morales hit an infield single to second that Didi Gregorius tried to make a play on, but he threw it away from Teixeira, which allowed Cain to score.

Even with Gregorius making his sixth error of the season, Betances got through it and struck out the side for the second straight game. In the top of the ninth, Andrew Miller picked up his first save since May 8 and 14th of the season by retiring the Royals in order.

Next Game: The New York Yankees (25-22) will begin a seven game West Coast trip tomorrow night against the Oakland Athletics (17-31) at O.Co Coliseum. You can catch the game at 10:05 PM ET on YES. CC Sabathia (2-6, 5.47 ERA) will get the start for the Bronx Bombers against Kendall Graveman (2-2, 6.04) for the A’s.

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