This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Royals did manage to score before the game ended, as Salvador Perez launched a two-run homer off Mark Leiter Jr. in the ninth after a routine popup fell in the Yankees’ infield. Leiter then gave away another run with a throwing error.

The Yankees are are 12-3 against the Royals since the start of last season, including their playoff series win.

What Aaron Judge is doing right now is ridiculous -- and even his teammates know it. A day after clobbering a 469-foot homer to uncharted territory atop the roof of the Royals’ Hall of Fame building,

With Aaron Judge getting at least the start of the night off, the Yankees struggled to do much without him before scrapping a run across.

In a month where he slugged .798 and posted an OPS north of 1.250, Judge hit 11 homers and racked up 20 extra-base hits. That’s not just impressive — it puts him in a club of Yankees legends who dominated baseball decades ago, when balls were heavier, stadiums bigger, and “launch angle” wasn’t a buzzword.