\nNew York\u2019s Ben Rice celebrates his two-run home against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on April 17, 2026 in New York City.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Rice crushed an 80 mph changeup left hanging at the bottom of the strike zone. Royals catcher Salvador Perez knew it immediately, too. The homer traveled 364 feet and gave the Yankees a two-run advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe height on it was good,\u201d Wacha said. \u201cJust kind of more middle down. Yeah, would\u2019ve liked it to fade away a little bit more to that corner, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Royals pressed forward. Wacha navigated the fifth inning by stranding runners on first and third base. Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger flew out to end the threat and keep the deficit manageable.<\/p>\n
Wacha recorded a quality start in the loss. He allowed three hits, two runs and three walks and recorded six strikeouts in his six innings of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s difficult against any lineup,\u201d Royals manager Matt Quatraro said of Wacha. \u201cI mean, you saw him get swing and miss on fastballs up. He had a good slider and probably the best curveball I\u2019ve seen him have. Not just using it as a get me over. Yeah, I mean, he was outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Wacha dealt with his mistake, the Yankees found a way to deal with their own.<\/p>\n
In the sixth inning, Yankees center fielder Trent Grisham dropped a fly ball off the bat of Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. Grisham was charged with a two-base error as Witt and Maikel Garcia \u2014 who had walked earlier in the inning \u2014 represented the tying runs.<\/p>\n
The Royals had a chance to tie the game with one out. Vinnie Pasquantino recorded an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to one, 2-1.. However, Royals catcher Perez struck out swinging to end the inning.<\/p>\n
The Royals faced Yankee starter Cam Schlittler followed by a host of relievers. Schlittler allowed one run in six innings. He surrendered three hits and recorded six strikeouts; 63 of his 93 pitches were strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s good,\u201d Pasquantino said. \u201cIt\u2019s an elite fastball. He doesn\u2019t shy away from it with the percentages. … It\u2019s not often a guy that tall is able to do the things he is able to do. So, he\u2019s one of the best pitchers in the game right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the seventh, the Royals had two runners aboard with no outs. But Yankees reliever Brent Headrick retired Jac Caglianone, Jonathan India and Starling Marte in order.<\/p>\n
Headrick struck out Caglianone and retired India, but then he uncorked a throwing error on a pickoff attempt to second. This allowed the Royals\u2019 runners to move into scoring position.<\/p>\n
Headrick avoided trouble, however, retiring Marte on a fly ball to center. It was another instance in which the Royals had failed to capitalize.<\/p>\n
Pasquantino later capitalized on his own, squaring things up in the eighth inning with the homer to right field off Yankees reliever Camilo Doval. It was Pasquantino\u2019s second homer of the year and made it 2-2.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/div>
\nRoyals slugger Vinnie Pasquantino watches the flight of his home run against the New York Yankees in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium on April 17, 2026 in New York City.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
But McMahon answered for the Yankees with his two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth. David Bednar pitched the ninth and earned the save.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next:<\/b> Royals left-hander Noah Cameron (1-0, 3.94 ERA) will start Saturday\u2019s afternoon game at Yankee Stadium. He will oppose Yankees right-hander Will Warren (1-0, 2.45 ERA), with first pitch set for 12:35 p.m. Central Time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baseball can be a cruel game. And sometimes, one mistake can be the difference on a given night. The Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees were reminded of that Friday evening. And the Yankees came away with a 4-2 victory at Yankee Stadium. The Royals, on the other hand, wound up on the short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2378756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[350142,416711,377375,91466,463050,376892,462835,376889,377372,463049,353618,279830,313841,43627,313842,311237,311236,314825,27155,463005,77699,428844,22091,386020,102808,356637],"class_list":["post-2378755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-aaron-judge","tag-alex-lange","tag-ben-rice","tag-bobby-witt-jr","tag-brent-headrick","tag-cam-schlittler","tag-camilo-doval","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-david-bednar","tag-eighth-inning","tag-giancarlo-stanton","tag-jac-caglianone","tag-jonathan-india","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-maikel-garcia","tag-michael-wacha","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-noah-cameron","tag-royals","tag-ryan-mcmahon","tag-salvador-perez","tag-starling-marte","tag-the-royals","tag-trent-grisham","tag-vinnie-pasquantino","tag-will-warren"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/How-Royals-dropped-5th-consecutive-game-in-Fridays-series-opener.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2378755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2378757,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2378755\/revisions\/2378757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2378756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2378755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2378755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2378755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}