Yankees pitchers need to keep ball in yard vs. Royals

The New York Yankees encountered warmer weather and trouble preventing pitches from leaving their home ballpark during their last series.

After allowing 13 homers in their previous four games, the Yankees hope to make better pitches Friday night when they host the Kansas City Royals in the opener of a three-game series.

The Yankees allowed three homers through their first 15 games, including their first homestand, which was played in temperatures under 60 degrees. Against the Angels, the average game-time temperature was 82 degrees and the Yankees settled for a four-game split.

New York earned a pair of wins in the ninth inning and hit nine homers. Aaron Judge hit four homers in the series but those were not enough since the Yankees allowed 32 runs and five homers to Mike Trout.

"The story of the series was we didn't keep the ball in the ballpark and that's something we've done really well up until this series and they kept coming at us," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

New York has lost seven of its last nine games and is coming off a loss when Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice homered. The Yankees did little else offensively and had two at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Judge has five homers in his past five games. He is 14-for-48 (.292) with six homers and 11 RBIs over his past 13 games.

Kansas City's 15 homers are the third fewest in the American League and it hit multiple homers for the fourth time in its first 19 games on Thursday. Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino homered Thursday afternoon when the Royals overcame a five-run deficit by scoring six runs in the seventh before taking a 10-9 loss at Detroit.

Bobby Witt Jr. also had three hits after going 2-for-14 in his previous four games. The Royals finished with 13 hits and went 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position but fell to 2-7 in its past nine games when Lucas Erceg allowed a two-run double to Riley Greene and a game-ending single to Colt Keith in the ninth.

"There were a lot of positives today," Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro said. "Obviously the big inning, we chipped away earlier than that. There were great at-bats throughout that seventh inning and even positives before that."

Eight of Kansas City's past nine games have been decided by two runs or fewer and its 5.98 ERA by relievers is the worst in the AL and second worst overall.

New York's starters allowed eight homers against the Angels as Cam Schlittler (2-1, 2.49 ERA) attempts to bounce back from his first loss.

After scoreless outings at San Francisco and Seattle, Schlittler allowed three runs apiece in each of his past two starts against the Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays. In Sunday's 5-4 loss at Tampa Bay, Schlittler allowed three runs along with a career-high-tying seven hits in five innings.

Schlittler heads into his first career start against the Royals with 30 strikeouts in his first 21 2/3 innings.

Michael Wacha (2-0, 0.43), who has allowed a run in three starts spanning 21 innings, goes for the Royals. Wacha has 10 scoreless outings since joining the Royals in 2024 and allowed four hits in eight innings of Sunday's 2-0 home win over the visiting Chicago White Sox.

Wacha is 2-2 with a 3.13 ERA in 12 career appearances (10 starts) against the Yankees. Wacha has held Judge to three hits in 24 at-bats with 11 strikeouts and limited Stanton to four hits in 17 at-bats.

--Field Level Media

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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 2:32 AM.