Yankees Pitcher Goes Off Against Royals

Schmidt allowed just two hits and struck out seven batters. In a postgame interview, Schmidt thanked outfielder Trent Grisham for a diving catch he made in the bottom of the second inning when he allowed one hit. Specifically, Schmidt said that on Thursday he intends to "go shopping for a bottle of wine" for Grisham.

"I owe him big time," Schmidt said. "I think, obviously he has two Gold Gloves for a reason, he's so impressive. To be able to have a guy out there in an outfield this big, to cover that much ground, [...] yeah, I gotta get him a bottle of wine for that."

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he was most impressed with the right-hander's mix of pitches.

"The mix. I thought it might have been one of his best mixes all year," Boone said. "First inning, more balls than strikes I think but he really settled in after that. I thought his mix tonight was excellent between sinker, four-seam, cutter, the curveball and the sweeper, I thought he kind of had it all working a little bit."

By contrast, Royals' starter Kris Bubic allowed five earned runs in his 4 1/3 innings pitched in his worst start this season. Prior to this game, Bubic boasted the lowest ERA among qualified starters in the MLB at 1.43.

This was Schmidt's 10th start this season in a Yankees pitching rotation that has been plagued by injury. With Gerritt Cole, Luke Weaver, and Marcus Stroman out, it's reassuring to see this kind of dominance from the mound.

The Yankees took their Tuesday game against the Royals 10-2 with Max Fried as starter, and will play them again on June 12 at 7:40 p.m. EST.

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