September 11 – Seth Lugo struck out 10 in seven scoreless innings, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 5–0 win over the New York Yankees on Tuesday night, snapping a six-game losing streak.
Lugo (16-8) allowed three hits and no runs in his 105 plate appearances. He tied Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal for the major league wins mark and became the first player since Jason Wahl in 2017. Jason Vargas is the first Kansas City pitcher to win 16 games after going 18-11.
The Royals (80-66) won for the fifth time in six games.
Lugo gave up a leadoff single to Gleyber Torres in the first inning and then struck out 17 in a row until Torres singled again with two outs in the sixth. After Torres’ second at-bat, Lugo hit a fly ball to deep left off Juan Soto.
New York’s Austin Wells led off with a single in the seventh. Lugo struck out Giancarlo Stanton on a fly ball and then struck out Jazz Chisholm Jr. to end the inning.
The veteran right-hander notched his fourth double-digit strikeouts of the season and fell two runs short of his career-high. Lugo did not issue a walk for only the third time this season, throwing 77 of 105 strikeouts.
Bobby Witt Jr. had an RBI single off New York’s Marcus Stroman (10-8) in the third inning and was followed by an RBI single by Salvador Perez. Perez also had a run-scoring single in the fifth inning. He went 4-for-4 with a home run in a 10-4 loss to Kansas City on Monday and had driven in five runs in his previous two games.
Tommy Pham hit a solo home run in the seventh inning. Pinch hitter Maikel Garcia added a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning after pinch-runner Deyron Blanco stole two bases.
Kris Bubic and John Schreiber each pitched an inning to hold Kansas City to its ninth shutout of the year.
Stroman allowed three runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. The right-hander had four strikeouts and two walk-offs, making his second consecutive start after winning his last three decisions.
The Yankees (83-62) returned home empty-handed for the eighth time this season and second time since the All-Star break. Aaron Judge (0-for-4) went without a home run for the 14th consecutive game while holding the Yankees to a season-low three-hit score.
——Visual-level media
