Three takeaways from the Yankees' ALDS win over the Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Three Yankees takeaways from their ALDS victory over the Royals:

The Yankees handled their business

The Royals were maybe Major League Baseball’s best story this season, certainly the American League’s. All the way to the playoffs, and a first-round upset over the Orioles, after 106 losses the season before. But this was a team the Yankees should have beaten and needed to beat. Still, as the wild-card era of the playoffs has repeatedly shown, the better team doesn’t always win, so the Yankees taking out the upstart Royals, in the early stages of building what looks like a potential powerhouse, in four games shouldn’t be dismissed. Especially after dropping Game 2 at the Stadium. But the Yankees, negativity swirling around then, came into a hostile environment and won two tightly contested games to rid themselves of a pesky team that was not a great matchup for them. It guarantees the Yankees nothing in the ALCS, when they will be heavy favorites against either the Guardians or Tigers, but it’s what championship teams do.

The Yankees bullpen looks OK after all

The unit spent the first two months of the season among the best – if not the best – in the game, then was a mostly inconsistent outfit for some three months before appearing to right the ship in September. That continued in a big way against the Royals as Yankees relievers combined to throw 15 2/3 scoreless innings in the four-game series victory. Luke Weaver, as he did in the season’s final three weeks after taking over for Clay Holmes as the closer, was dominant, closing out all three Yankees wins against the Royals. But Holmes, booed much of the second half as his blown-save total ballooned, pitched in all four games and did not allow a run, very much resembling the pitcher he was the first one and a half months. One rival scout called Tommy Kahnle’s changeup, a pitch the righthander threw 14 straight times in one game, “pretty much unhittable right now.”

The Yankees showed they could win without Aaron Judge at his best

Judge’s bat showed signs of life in Thursday’s Game 4 victory, the expected AL MVP going 1-for-2 with two walks and a rocket double. Still, Judge went 2-for-13 in the series – the other hit was an infield single – with five walks and five strikeouts. But Judge was picked up by Giancarlo Stanton (6-for-16 with a homer and two doubles) and, at various moments in the series when the club needed it most, Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto, Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, and, yes, Alex Verdugo, who entered these playoffs the least popular Yankee among the fanbase since Aaron Hicks.