By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Royals surrendered runs in the first inning for a seventh game in a row and never recovered on Wednesday evening against the New York Yankees, falling 11-5 at Kauffman Stadium.
Royals reliever Dan Altavilla opened the game on the mound, but could only record one out on way to a six run first inning by the Yankees, five of the runs given up by Altavilla before being relieved by Daniel Lynch who gave up one in the inning.
The Yankees would add two more runs in the fifth inning, scoring eight unanswered runs before the Royals would score two in the bottom of the sixth, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr extending his hit streak to 13 games with an RBI double, Witt would later score on a sacrifice fly from Nelson Velázquez.
New York would extend their lead again in the top of the seventh scoring three more runs. The Royals would go on to score their final three runs of the game in the bottom half of the inning.
Despite starting 0 for 2 on the day, Witt Jr led the team in hits going 3 for 5 by the end of the game with two RBIs. The loss pushed the Royals losing streak to four games.
Kansas City will now look to avoid being swept at home by the Yankees, sending Alec Marsh to the mound to wrap up the series against New York starter Nestor Cortes. First pitch in the series finale from Kauffman Stadium will be at 1:10pm
INJURY NEWS
The Royals received some good news on outfielder Hunter Renfroe's injury. An MRI revealed that Renfroe does not have a fracture like the initial X-Ray showed, instead showed a bone bruise, helping Renfroe avoid surgery and the six to eight week timeline to return. Renfroe was already playing some light catch on Wednesday prior to the game.