Gerrit Cole brilliant again as Yankees sweep Royals

Gerrit Cole scattered four hits and struck out 10 over 6 2/3 stellar innings and Ben Rice had three RBIs as the visiting New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep with a 7-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Cole (1-0) did not yield a walk during his efficient 79-pitch outing as the Yankees beat the Royals for the 13th straight time. His second start of the year was even more impressive than his first, when he tossed six scoreless innings versus Tampa Bay on Friday in his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery after the 2024 World Series.

Rice and Paul Goldschmidt each had two hits and Ryan McMahon clubbed a two-run homer in the eighth for New York, which has won four straight. The Yankees outscored Kansas City 26-4 this week -- and 50-10 while sweeping the six-game season series.

Royals starter Noah Cameron (2-4) allowed two runs and four hits over five innings. Maikel Garcia poked two of the Royals' four hits as they dropped to 3-13 since May 10.

Kansas City threatened Cole in the third, when Michael Massey roped a double into the right-field corner for the game's first hit. However, he was thrown out at the plate by Aaron Judge on Garcia's two-out single to right.

Cameron, meanwhile, was perfect through the first three innings. Then Goldschmidt opened the fourth with a single to left, then scored on Rice's triple that went off the left field fence and caromed away from Kansas City's Isaac Collins. Judge's sacrifice fly made it 2-0.

Cameron's night ended after he yielded another single to Goldschmidt and walked Rice to open the sixth. However, John Schreiber got Judge to ground into a 6-4-3 double play and Cody Bellinger to fly out.

The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh. Nick Mears got Jose Caballero to line out and fanned Austin Wells, but he walked Goldschmidt to force home a run. The Royals brought in reliever Alex Lange, but Rice broke things open with a two-run single to right.

--Field Level Media