KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Royals do a lot well. Their rotation entered play with the fifth-best ERA in all of baseball.
They began action Tuesday having scored 331 runs, which was tied for the fourth-most in the majors. They are a legitimate threat in the AL Central and sit comfortably in wild-card position.
But a team that might be destined for October baseball has looked amateur next to the powerhouse from The Bronx.
The Yankees again excelled in every facet of play — getting three homers and far more than enough from a powerful offense while putting together a spotless defensive game that helped out Marcus Stroman and the relievers who followed — in a thorough destruction of the Royals, 10-1, at Kauffman Stadium.
The Yankees (48-21) have taken the first two games of a four-game series, have won 11 of 13 and continue to treat the AL Central the same way Aaron Judge treats baseballs.
Judge’s majors-leading 25th home run helped the Yankees improve to 16-1 against the Royals, Twins, White Sox, Guardians and Tigers this season.
The Yankees have led after every inning of this series, again jumping on a Kansas City starting pitcher immediately.
An Anthony Volpe triple, Juan Soto walk and Judge bloop single set the tone against Brady Singer and gave the Yankees a first-inning lead they never surrendered.
They added another run on a ground ball from Giancarlo Stanton that was fielded by third baseman Maikel Garcia, who tried to throw out Soto at home, but Soto’s nifty slide helped him sneak in.
The game became a laugher in the fourth, when Gleyber Torres knocked an RBI single before Austin Wells blasted a three-run shot to bring the lead to six.
After adding one more in the sixth, the Yankees turned the laugher into a howler in the seventh.
Judge blasted his fourth home run in his past three games for a two-run shot before Stanton followed with a no-doubt, 446-foot shot to dead-center.
They surely appreciated it, but Stroman and the bullpen didn’t need the cushion.
Stroman induced ground ball after ground ball — 11 ground outs compared to three fly outs — en route to 5 ²/₃ shutout innings in which he scattered four hits and three walks and lowered his ERA to 2.82.
Stroman induced just four swings-and-misses but relied upon soft contact (which he got) and excellent defense behind him (which he got).
The Yankees have statistically been one of the strongest defensive teams in baseball and played like it again.
There was the second-inning ball that Nelson Velazquez scalded on a short hop to Volpe, who did well to knock it down, picked up the ball on the outfield grass and threw strong to first just in time.
There was the miracle basket catch by Anthony Rizzo in the fourth inning, when the first baseman ranged back — all the way to medium-depth right field — and ran with his back to home plate before sticking out his glove.
The pop-up from Salvador Perez landed in the heel of the mitt of Rizzo, who stumbled to the grass and lay there for a moment.
An inning later, Kyle Isbel sent a two-out triple into right field to become the first Royals batter to reach third against Stroman.
But first Oswaldo Cabrera’s mind and then glove helped Stroman out: Cabrera laid off a swinging bunt from Garcia that veered foul at the last moment before ending the inning by spearing a chopper and throwing Garcia out.
Stroman received some help from his bullpen, too.
In the sixth, a single and two walks loaded the bases with two outs for Drew Waters, and Aaron Boone turned to Ron Marinaccio.
The recent call-up needed four pitches to strike out Waters and strand the three runners.
Marinaccio pitched 2 ¹/₃ innings, allowing just an eighth-inning solo shot to Freddy Fermin, before Victor Gonzalez finished a game that had been finished hours earlier.
By the end, the Royals had a position player (Nick Pratto) on the mound.
By the end, the Yankees had superstars (Judge and Soto) resting in the dugout after being pulled a few innings earlier.
A possible playoff matchup looked like the varsity against the freshmen.