Daily Clips
May 18, 2017
LOCAL
Royals burned early by Yankees' red-hot bats
May 18, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan and Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Vargas can't escape pivotal 5-run 4th inning
May 18, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
#EskyMagic provides spark for KC's offense
May 17, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Duffy looking to reverse trend against Yankees
May 17, 2017By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Royals’ Jason Vargas shows he is human in 11-7 loss to the Yankees
May 17, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Royals must make roster move when Ian Kennedy returns from disabled list
May 17, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
Five things to know about Royals outfielder Alex Gordon
May 17, 2017By Jeff Patterson/KC Star
MINORS
Rainiers Blast Past Chasers 7-2
Torres' hit streak goes to 11 in 1st game of day/night twinbill
May 17, 2017 By Andrew Green/Omaha Storm Chasers
Skoglund, Mondesi Lead Chasers to 4-2 Win
Skoglund tosses 7-inning CG, Mondesi homers & drives in 3 RBI
May 17, 2017 By Andrew Green/Omaha Storm Chasers
4-run Inning Sinks Travs
Arkansas can't recover from early deficit but Taylor keeps hit streak alive
May 18, 2017By Steven Davis/Arkansas Travelers
Blue Crew Wins with Great Overall Effort
DeVito Homers, Puckett Strong on Mound
May 17, 2017 By Cory Nidoh/Wilmington Blue Rocks
MLB TRANSACTIONS
May 18, 2017 •.CBSSports.com
LOCAL
Royals burned early by Yankees' red-hot bats
May 18, 2017 By Jeffrey Flanagan and Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
The surging Yankees offense scored seven or more runs for the fourth straight game, battering Royals pitchers for 16 hits in an 11-7 win on Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
Aaron Hicks hit a three-run homer, his seventh, while Starlin Castro had three hits and Gary Sanchez logged his third straight multi-hit game -- as the Yanks knocked out Royals starter Jason Vargas with a five-run fourth.
"The second time through, we put a bunch of good at-bats together and got to him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We've put guys on base and we've hit home runs. That's a pretty good combination."
The Yankees have a combined 29 hits and 18 runs through the first two games of the series. It continued a season-long trend in which the offense has generally been robust.
Vargas came into the game 5-1 with a Major League-best 1.01 ERA, but he gave up six runs and seven hits over four innings. Vargas had been unbeaten in his previous 10 home starts (1.84 ERA).
"We were patient on Vargas and made him work tonight," Girardi said.
Right-hander Michael Pineda went six-plus innings for the Yankees and gave up six hits and three earned runs. He walked two and struck out five.
"It was kind of mixed," Girardi said. "He gave up a couple of homers, but he had to sit through some long innings and sometimes that can be difficult. But I thought he was OK."
Royals catcher Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer, his eighth, and Whit Merrifield added a solo shot, his fourth.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The game-changer: Vargas was still hanging on with two out in the fourth, trailing 2-0 with two out. But with Aaron Judge and Chase Headley on base, Vargas hung a changeup to Hicks, who skied it down the left-field line near the pole. It landed fair -- Statcast™ estimated it traveled 390 feet with a 101 mph exit velocity. The shot gave the Yanks a commanding 5-0 lead.
"[Hicks] has played really, really well," Girardi said. "That's why we continue to use him."
"Vargy, for the most, is going to give you a good five, six or seven innings, even on nights when he's not sharp," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "It was just one of those nights. He was facing a hot-hitting team and they didn't miss a mistake."
Stop right there: Pineda got into a self-induced jam in the sixth when he hit Mike Moustakas with a pitch to lead off, and after one out, walked Eric Hosmer. The Royals were down 10-3 at the time with hopes of chiseling away at the lead. But Pineda got Perez to fly out to right and then struck out Jorge Soler to end the threat.
"He has a really good changeup tonight," Hosmer said. "He's always had a good cutter, good slider."
Said Pineda: "When your team does a lot of scoring, it makes you pretty comfortable on the mound."
UPON REVIEW
The Royals successfully challenged a safe call at the plate in the fifth inning when Alex Gordon came up throwing on Sanchez's single to left with Chris Carter barreling home. The call was overturned as catcher Perez put the tag on Carter before his foot touched home plate.
WHAT'S NEXT
Yankees: Left-hander Jordan Montgomery (2-2, 4.19 ERA) will oppose the Royals in the final game of the series on Thursday at 8:15 p.m. ET. Montgomery has limited hitters to a .156 average with runners in scoring position through his first six starts.
Royals: Left-hander Danny Duffy (2-3, 3.38) will take the mound in the series finale against the Yankees at 7:15 p.m. CT. Duffy took a no-decision on Friday against the Orioles -- giving up two runs over seven innings while striking out six.
Vargas can't escape pivotal 5-run 4th inning
May 18, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
Of the 49 pitches that Royals left-hander Jason Vargas fired during the fourth inning of Wednesday night's 11-7 loss to the Yankees, he really wanted one back the most.
And that was a two-out, 2-2 curveball to Didi Gregorius. Vargas wanted to bury it. But the curve hung up and Gregorius slapped an RBI single to right to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Moments later, Vargas hung a changeup to Aaron Hicks, who drilled a three-run homer and the rout was on. The Yanks chased Vargas after four innings.
"I think that (2-2) pitch was probably the key turning point for them," Vargas said. "Obviously, the home run extended the [inning] for them and put us in a hole. But the at-bat by Gregorius, I thought was key for us to keep the game competitive and to be able to get deeper into the game."
The home run by Hicks towered into the left-field corner, just fair.
"It was just up and not a good pitch, and right over the plate," Vargas said. "I made some good pitches in that at-bat to get to that point and then didn't execute. I definitely hoped it would hook foul. I knew when he hit it, it would definitely have to be blown foul."
Coming into the game, Vargas' changeup had been devastating. According to Statcast™, it has produced the third-highest whiff rate (17 percent) in the Majors.
But Vargas, who entered with a Major League-best 1.01 ERA, couldn't keep the changeup down in the zone. He gave up seven hits and six runs, his ERA rising to 2.03.
After seven terrific starts, a clunker likely was due.
"I think in the long run, yeah, probably," Vargas conceded. "But the only game that really mattered was tonight and getting us back in the winner's category, and get us moving back in the right direction. It's never easy to swallow to not get out of an inning when you know you had chances to get out of that inning. I just wasn't able to execute after the Didi at-bat."
Vargas' struggles against the Yankees over his career continued. He now is 0-6 against them with a 7.20 ERA.
"I would probably say yes and no," Vargas said to whether the Yanks had any spell over him. "A couple of times early when I faced them, they were a different team. I'm at a different point than I was before. But they've always been known for having good offenses. And some teams just match up better than others."
#EskyMagic provides spark for KC's offense
May 17, 2017By Jeffrey Flanagan/MLB.com
As any Royals fan knows, shortstop Alcides Escobar is perhaps the least likely candidate to be a leadoff hitter.
Escobar is a career .259 hitter who for the most part disdains walks, thus his .295 on-base percentage entering Wednesday's game against the Yankees.
But a little over a week ago, manager Ned Yost felt he had no choice while trying to boost what was the worst offense in the Major Leagues: So Yost employed a familiar trick from his bag by putting Escobar back in the leadoff spot.
Since then, the Royals had won six of eight entering Wednesday. Of course, Escobar, on the surface, would seem to have little to do with the resurgence -- hitting .222 over that span.
But it has never been about what Escobar does. It's about what the team does when he's in the top spot.
The phenomenon garnered its own Twitter hashtag back in 2014: #EskyMagic. The Royals went 21-10 with Escobar leading off, including the postseason.
In 2015, when the Royals won the World Series, they were 93-54 with Escobar leading off.
Yost to this day has no explanation.
"It defies logic," Yost said. "But it works. We've seen it work before."
It didn't work quite as well in 2016 -- 38-44. But overall, the Royals are 158-110 with Escobar leading off.
Escobar in the leadoff spot perhaps is the Royals identity.
"Whatever," Yost said. "I don't care. It works."
Escobar doesn't have any explanations, either.
"Everybody here like that when I lead off," he said, shrugging his shoulder. "I like it, too. And we continue to win if I lead off. I think it's just having fun between the lines."
Duffy looking to reverse trend against Yankees
May 17, 2017By Robert Falkoff/MLB.com
Left-hander Danny Duffy has established himself as a fixture at the top of the Royals' rotation. It's the type of enviable spot that Yankees rookie lefty Jordan Montgomery would like to find himself in some day while wearing the pinstripes.
The veteran and the rookie will battle on Thursday in the series finale at Kauffman Stadium. The Yanks will go for the sweep after piling up 18 runs in the first two games of the set.
Both starters have had their moments through the opening quarter of the season. Duffy will be making his team-high ninth start. Although he is winless in his last five outings, that's more about a lack of offensive support than anything else.
Duffy has struggled against the Yankees through his career -- 1-2 with a 7.29 ERA. Montgomery, meanwhile, will get a look at the Royals for the first time.
Montgomery took the loss in his last start against Houston, allowing a career-high four earned runs over six innings. Duffy had a no-decision his last time out despite allowing just two runs over seven innings against the Orioles.
According to Statcast, Montgomery only breaks out the slider about 15 percent of the time, but that jumps to 38 percent with two strikes. The slider has accounted for 17 of his 33 strikeouts. Because of that, in at-bats ending with a slider, opponents are batting just .133 with no extra-base hits against him.
Things to know about this game
• Montgomery has the lowest home run per nine innings ratio among Yankees starters. He has given up just three homers in 34 1/3 innings (0.79).
• Entering this season, Montgomery was ranked as the No. 13 prospect in the Yanks' organization by MLBPipeline.com
• Duffy had a franchise-record 16-game home unbeaten streak snapped on May 2 when he took a loss against the White Sox.
Royals’ Jason Vargas shows he is human in 11-7 loss to the Yankees
May 17, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
In the moments after his last start, after his ERA had dipped to Gibsonian levels, Jason Vargas stood inside a visitors clubhouse at Tropicana Field and listened as a reporter offered a question.
For the previous two hours and change, Vargas, the Royals’ cunning left-hander, had neutralized the Tampa Bay Rays, throwing another seven scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 1.01 and continuing the finest run of his career. For seven starts, Vargas had pitched like the best starter on the planet, an 86-mph throwing, change-up hurling ace who had been one of the surprises of baseball. In the aftermath, he was asked if he had set a goal of having an ERA in the 1.00s, a somewhat ludicrous question for a 34-year-old southpaw with a career ERA of 4.07.
Vargas did not treat the question as such, but he did offer a plainspoken dose of reality.
“I don’t necessarily know if I would set a goal for a 1.00 ERA,” he said. “It hasn’t been done very often in this sport.”
At some point, of course, the results were going to tilt back the other way. Reality would snap back toward historical norms. Vargas would no longer be Sandy Koufax. He understood this. But perhaps he did not expect the statistical correction to be this harsh.
In a 11-7 loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday, Vargas surrendered six earned runs in four innings, including five with two outs during a disastrous fourth. In a span of 10 hitters, Vargas was gashed for five hits and two walks. He needed 49 pitches to weather the damage. When the inning was over, the Royals trailed 6-0, Vargas’ ERA had doubled to 2.03, and the Yankees were poised to deliver a beating for a second straight night at Kauffman Stadium.
One night after absorbing a 7-1 loss, the Royals’ starting pitching skidded and careened into a ditch once again. Vargas dropped to 5-2 on the season. Reliever Peter Moylan was pinched for four runs in the fifth.
The Royals (16-23) must win here on Thursday night to avoid a three-game sweep.
As the Yankees’ offense pounded out 11 runs and 16 hits, piling up 29 hits across two days, the Royals were held in check by Yankees starter Michael Pineda.
Salvador Perez crushed his eighth homer, a two-run blast, into the fountains in left field in the bottom of the fourth inning. Whit Merrifield hit a towering solo shot in the fifth. The homers traveled 445 feet and 430 feet, respectively. Yet they accounted for just three runs and the bulk of the Royals’ attack.
Pineda allowed four runs in six innings before departing after facing two batters in the seventh. The Yankees, rejuvenated by a young core, a high-octane offense and a resurgent pitching staff, remained in first place in the American League East, moving to 24-13, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles.
The Royals, of course, had begun the home stand by engineering a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, climbing to within five games of .500. But after two games against the Yankees, they have ceded some of that hard-fought ground.
On Wednesday, the problems began when Yankees second baseman Starlin Castro saw a first-pitch fastball and hammered a double off the right-field wall in the top of the first. Vargas settled in and record scoreless innings in the second and third before getting two outs in the fourth. And then the bottom fell out.
New York shortstop Didi Gregorius delivered an RBI single to right field. And moments later, with two men on, Aaron Hicks whacked a 2-2 change-up down the line into the seats in left field. The three-run blast put the Yankees ahead 5-0. All season long, Vargas’ change-up had been his most potent weapon, delivering swings and misses by the dozen. For one moment, it failed him.
From there, the Royals were forced to play from behind. They came up with three runs in the bottom of the ninth. They lacked the firepower to keep pace.
Royals must make roster move when Ian Kennedy returns from disabled list
May 17, 2017By Rustin Dodd/KC Star
After completing another side session on Wednesday afternoon, Royals starter Ian Kennedy positioned himself to return from the disabled list and start against the Twins on Saturday in Minnesota.
The Royals will evaluate Kennedy’s hamstring on Thursday. The club likely will not make its decision on starter for Saturday before Friday. Kennedy will not need to be activated from the disabled list until Saturday morning. But for the moment, barring symptoms of discomfort on Thursday, all signs point to Kennedy taking the ball on Saturday.
“We’ll just see how he feels tomorrow,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Kennedy was placed on the 10-day disabled list on May 5 after straining his right hamstring during a loss against the Chicago White Sox one day earlier. He has missed two starts. Right-hander Chris Young has filled in, allowing nine earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.
The Royals will need to clear a spot on their 25-man roster to re-instate Kennedy. The bullpen currently has eight relievers. Left-hander Scott Alexander, who went on the disabled list retroactive to May 8 with a strained hamstring, is eligible to come off the disabled list on Thursday. He posted a 1.26 ERA before the injury and is a safe bet to return once healthy.