Aaron Judge Sparks Yankees Vs Royals With Walk-Off Blast
Aaron Judge sent the Yankees into their yankees vs royals series with a walk-off, two-run blast to close the homestand, and New York carried that momentum into a Monday afternoon opener on Memorial Day at Kauffman Stadium. The three-game set arrived after a postponement on Saturday kept the Yankees from gaining ground on the Rays in the AL East.
Judge Starts the Trip
Judge’s homer was the last swing of the homestand and the first piece of the story in Kansas City. New York opened the road trip with a game that followed quickly behind that finish, giving the Yankees no break between the end of one stretch and the start of another.
The Yankees needed that edge because the Royals came in with a rotation and bullpen stretched by uneven results. Their fifth starter spot had already been handled by Bailey Falter and Luinder Avila, with Avila working three scoreless innings in the May 19 loss at home to the Red Sox.
Wacha Against New York
Michael Wacha was the Royals’ most relevant name on the mound because he had already handled the Yankees once in the Bronx. In that start, he threw six innings of three-hit ball, but Kansas City still lost 4-2. He has also finished at least seven innings four times this year, which gives the Royals a deeper look than the bullpen has often provided.
That bullpen has been part of the problem. Kansas City ranked 23rd in bullpen ERA and 26th in bullpen WHIP, numbers that line up with the lineup issues around Bobby Witt Jr. The Royals have struggled to build consistent production around him, with Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Pérez all listed among the hitters who have underperformed.
Schlittler and Warren
On the Yankees side, Will Warren brought a 6-1 record through his first 10 starts of 2026, and New York was scoring 7.8 runs per game over that stretch. Cam Schlittler added another layer to the pitching picture after posting a league-leading 1.50 ERA and getting a season-high 106 pitches in each of his previous two starts.
Schlittler had already seen Wacha once last month, his first repeat opponent of 2026, and came away on the winning end. For the Yankees, that left the series opener with a clean shape: Judge’s bat set the tone, the pitching numbers backed it up, and Kansas City entered needing cleaner innings from Wacha or more length from the back end to keep the series from slipping early.
