Royals lose 4-2 to Yankees in Singlesfest 2024

Royals tried to come back, but it wasn’t enough.

Though there were six runs scored in tonight’s 4-2 contest between the Yankees and Royals, it wasn’t a particularly interesting one. There are only so many 4- or 8-run deficits the Royals can get themselves into before being unable to come back, and though they tried, they couldn’t quite do so tonight.

For most of the game, Carlos Rodon simply shut down the Royals. The former White Sox lefty didn’t strike out the Royals like crazy, but he did put down the Royals with stark efficiency; Rodon didn’t walk anybody and only struck out three, but he no-hit the Royals into the fifth inning, so. That was fun.

Thrice, the Royals had chances against Rodon. The first two times, Freddy Fermin grounded into a double play. The third time, Fermin hit an RBI single to score Nick Loftin to make it 4-1, Yankees.

As far as those four Yankees runs: call this game Hinge, because it was a singles party. The Yankees notched nine hits against Seth Lugo and the Royals bullpen, all of them singles. On the game, the two teams combined for 16 hits and 15 singles. Lugo threw seven innings and the Royals got a pair of scoreless innings out of recent call-up Dan Altavilla and Sam Long.

Kansas City made the game interesting in the last few innings, as they have done. Dairon Blanco singled and then stole second base, and scored on Bobby Witt Jr.’s double down the left field line—the only extra base hit of the night. And then in the ninth inning, Nick Loftin got on base for the fourth time in the night (a walk) to bring up the tying run, Vinnie Pasquantino. Vinnie got a cookie down the middle of the plate and hit it to deep center field, but he didn’t quite square it up.

MJ Melendez then struck out for the third out of the game, taking probably the worst called strike I have ever seen in my life, which is not an exaggeration. Bring us the robot umps now. I mean...come on.

So it goes.

Oh, one other thing of note: Hunter Renfroe fouled a ball off his foot, prompting Rex Hudler to do his “if you want to see how that feels hit yourself with a hammer” bit, only for Renfroe to foul a second ball off his foot in the exact same place. The Royals announced that Renfroe fractured his big toe later in the game. Expect to see some Drew Waters soon.

The Yankees continue to be the best team in baseball, and they played without Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton tonight. It’s hard to be optimistic about the rest of the series—the Royals are good, but the Yankees are just better in every facet in the game. But! Anything can happen in baseball.