By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals again could not get any offense going against the New York Yankees as starting pitcher Gerrit Cole struck out 10 while pitching into the seventh in a second stellar start since his return from Tommy John surgery, and the Yankees beat the Royals 7-0 at Kauffman Stadium, running their winning streak to 14 straight over Kansas City.
Cole threw 79 pitches over 6.2 innings, allowing four hits without a walk, earning his first win of the season. The stellar performance by the former Cy Young Award winner came after Cole had allowed two hits over six scoreless innings against Tampa Bay in his first major league start since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.
Noah Cameron continued to struggle for Kansas City following his outstanding rookie season, falling to 2-4 on the season, pitching into the sixth inning, allowing two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out four.
The Yankees were coming off a memorable 15-1 win Tuesday night in which they belted six homers and had 24 hits. Ben Rice had three RBIs, Ryan McMahon hit a two-run home run and Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Judge also drove in runs, sending the Yankees to their second sweep of the Royals this season. New York has won 22 of its last 23 series against them overall.
The closest the Royals came to scoring off Cole came in the third inning, when Michael Massey hit a one-out double. Isaac Collins struck out to bring up Maikel Garcia, who ripped a single to right. Judge fielded it cleanly and threw out Massey at the plate. Garcia led the way hitting going 2-for-4 on the night with a double. Massey was 1-for-3 with a double.
Kansas City is off on Thursday and will open their three-game set in Texas on Friday night with Stephen Kolek (3-0, 2.77 ERA, 14 K's) set to start following his complete game shutout his last time out. First pitch on Friday is at 7:05pm, pregame will begin at 6:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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