When the Yankees pulled Carlos Carrasco in the fifth inning of last Tuesday’s loss to the Detroit Tigers, the feel-good story he produced in spring training seemed like a distant memory. Of the four runs the veteran right-hander allowed at a frigid Comerica Park, three came via solo home runs, and he watched his ERA rise to a bloated 7.71.
But the 38-year-old demonstrated on Monday that his current spot in the starting rotation was still earned on merit, and not just given to him by neccessity. Carrasco twirled five innings of one-hit ball in the Yankees’ 4-1 home win over the Kansas City Royals — undoubtedly his most encouraging outing of the young season.
“Just moxie, man. His change was really good, had good bottom to it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Carrasco. “He was kind of working through his breaking balls as the night went on and he executed some good ones there. But his changeup was really good. He was in and around the strike zone enough, able to get a little chase with it too… A big five innings from him.”
Carrasco found himself in an early jam by walking a pair in the first inning, but it didn’t take long for him to work out of trouble and gain composure. His lone mistake was a slider thrown to Royals stud Bobby Witt Jr. that landed in the left field seats for a solo homer and ended a competitive 10-pitch battle.
The bounceback performance from Carrasco included four strikeouts across five frames, and brought his ERA down to 5.94 (four starts, 16.2 innings). He’s lined up to make his next start on the road against the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, in the ballpark that brought him good fortune during spring camp.
Dominguez finding his footing
If the Yankees felt that Jasson Dominguez needed a healthy amount of fly balls sent his way in left field on Monday, the Royals were more than willing to cooperate. The rookie registered a career-high six putouts behind Carrasco, and his most impressive catch came in the fourth inning when he took extra bases away from Salvador Perez with a leaping over-the-shoulder catch.
“It was tough, but got a good jump on it. Just kept my eyes on the ball,” Dominguez said after the game. “For myself, after I make that play, it feels pretty good. Because I’ve been working every day with [coach Luis Rojas], putting in consistent work, and it’s showing off.”
The highlight-reel play was undoubtedly a confidence-booster for Dominguez, and once he returned to the dugout when the inning ended, his teammates were there to praise him. The transition from center field to left field has been far from seamless — missplays in spring training raised some fair questions and concerns — but he’s clearly more comfortable with the route running.
Dominguez was once again taken out of the game late for defensive purposes — Cody Bellinger replaced him in the ninth — but he undoubtedly made strides on Monday that reaffirmed the Yankees’ faith in him settling into the new positiion. Boone has also noticed the growth in Dominguez’s tracking that simply comes from constant reps.
“What I like is the ease in the routes and the ease that he’s getting to those balls,” Boone said of Dominguez. “Since the start of the season, I feel like he’s grown. The right footwork, the right move to the ball. And that’s when you’re going to start seeing the range with his speed show up… There’s no greater teacher than experience.”
“He keeps getting better, but those are two really good ones”
Aaron Boone talks about Jasson Dominguez’s play in left field tonight: pic.twitter.com/dICbdPIdxj
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 15, 2025
When in doubt, stick to the homer
The Yankees entered Monday with just three homers in their previous seven games, and Royals starter Seth Lugo arrived in the Bronx with only two long balls allowed to them across 14 career meetings. So, naturally, New York’s power stroke returned with a vengeance and defied some history.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. delivered the first of four homers off of Lugo in the fourth, and then in the fifth, Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, and Austin Wells took the veteran righty deep into the right field seats, pushing the Yankees’ lead to 4-1. There wasn’t a need for further offense — the lefty long-ball quartet did the trick.
It was the first time that the Yankees scored four-plus runs all on solo homers since 2019, and their league-high mark in homers reached 32. Boone was pleased with the competitive at-bats against Lugo, and Chisholm mentioned the return of some warmer April weather as the remedy to some cold bats.
“[Lugo] throws a lot of strikes, so we just had to go out there and attack him the way he attacks us,” Chisholm told the YES Network after the game. “It was exciting. We’re just happy to be out here with some good weather, playing baseball and having fun again. It was hard the last couple days, playing in the cold. But we’re here and ready for it to warm up so we can warm up.”
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