Yankees Almost Lose to Royals

It was an odd series that was played between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals this past weekend at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The Royals lost 104 games last year. Only the Baltimore Orioles has a worse record. The Royals picked up where they left off last year by losing 10 straight games this year. However, they were able to win the first game of this series against the Yankees on Friday night. It would have been a huge embarrassment for the mighty Yankees and their massive payroll to lose a series at home against the Royals.

That exact scenario almost played out on Easter Sunday. The Yankees built up a 5-0 lead. Most of their fans probably thought they would be able to coast to an easy victory. However, the Royals exploded for six runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 6-5 lead. The Yankees immediately tied the game in the bottom of the frame. The Yankees beat the Royals 7-6 by scoring a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. By winning the game, the Yankees took the series two games to one. However, the series needs to serve as a wake up call to a Yankee team that has not played well this year.

It should be noted that the poor play of the Yankees this year can be blamed on a number of things. First and foremost, the Yankees are missing many of their best players due to injuries. Aaron Judge was just recently placed on the injured list with a strain of his oblique. This is a very tough injury for a slugger like Judge to recover from. It usually takes a very long time to heal. It is expected that this injury will cause Judge to miss at least one month. This is a huge loss because Judge is the best hitter on the team.

The Yankees will need to stay around .500 until some of their star players start to come back. That is the only way they will be able to contend. The Yankees have been helped in the early part of the season by playing a very weak schedule. They have played the Orioles, Tigers, White Sox and Royals. This has allowed them to pad their win total despite having a poor lineup. Their schedule is going to get tougher in the coming weeks.