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👑 Thursday, June 19 • Game 4 👑

Trailing by six, the Royals pour in runs and never look back.

New York Yankees at Kansas City Royals | Kaufmann Stadium
Weather: Cloudy, 78° | Wind: Blowing out to CF, 12 mph | Attendance: 32,580 | First pitch: 1:10 PM CT
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Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk)

Jason McLeod finally made it back home after a long scouting trip through Taiwan, and he didn't come back empty-handed. He flagged a 16-year-old first baseman—Ka-pa Chuang—and the report wasn't dressed up with hype. It was honest: a right-handed bat with some future pop if the body and approach come along, but contact questions that could keep the batting average light until the tool matures. We're not crowning him today—we're assigning him to the International Complex and letting development do the talking.

From my side of the dugout, the focus stayed locked on one thing: finish the sweep clean. The Yankees were already wobbling, and the only way you let a wounded team off the mat is by handing them free innings. Today's message: keep the line moving, play with pace, and don’t turn a getaway-day lead into a bullpen stress test.

New York Yankees Series Snapshot

Four games, home turf, and a chance to send a loud message with the standings watching. New York came in scuffling, but the middle of their order can still flip a game in one swing—so the assignment wasn’t “just score.” It was score, respond, and keep responding until the last out.

Series Matchup Board — Game 4

• LHP Jordan Montgomery vs. RHP Chase Hampton

It played like a roller coaster right out of the gate. Montgomery got tagged early,, and we had to go to the bullpen before the third inning was finished. Hampton couldn't hold the rope either; we kept putting traffic on him, and once we got into their relief chain, the game cracked open in the middle innings.
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Game Day Log — Royals vs. Yankees (Game 4)

Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View)

1st (Quiet start, but the feel was there):
Garcia opened with an infield hit, but we didn't cash. The Yankees went down quietly against Montgomery. Nothing on the board yet—just the sense both teams were going to be living in the gaps.

2nd (They land the first haymaker):
Volpe doubled, Stanton singled to bring him home, then Peraza's infield hit loaded it up—and J.T. Realmuto hit a 3-run homer. In a blink: 4–0 Yankees. That's the punch you can't absorb on autopilot. Bottom half, we answered with a captain swing: Salvador Perez solo HR to put us on the board. 4–1, and the dugout finally got its heartbeat back.

3rd (They add on; we keep the game alive):
Aaron Judge homered, then Chapman and Stanton doubled to push another run across. Suddenly, it’s 6–1, and Montgomery's pitch count was screaming. We pivoted to Paulino to stop the bleeding.

4th (Trading runs, inching back):
New York scratched one on a double chain—Allen to Domínguez—making it 7–1. Bottom 4, we manufactured: Waters singled, stole second, tagged to third, then Loftin lifted a sac fly to make it 7–2. Not loud, but it mattered—kept the comeback door unlocked.

5th (The comeback starts turning real):
This inning was pure pressure baseball: Garcia walked, Vinnie walked, Witt singled, then the dam broke. Perez singled (and we forced the play at the plate—SAFE), Waters singled (again, runner SAFE at the plate), Loftin singled, and suddenly we'd stacked four runs. Just like that: 7–6, and Kauffman woke up.

6th (Waters flips the whole game):
Garcia singled, Vinnie doubled, Payton singled—then with two outs and the stadium leaning forward, Drew Waters launched a 3-run homer to put us in front. That swing wasn't just a lead change—it was a statement. 10–7 Royals, and their dugout went quiet.

7th (One more tack-on, keep them buried):
We kept taking inches: Loftin singled, and later Pasquantino singled in a run—again with a bang-bang play at the plate that went our way. 11–7, and we finally had breathing room.

8th (Ferguson holds the line):
This is where the win got preserved. Ferguson kept the ball out of the air, handled traffic, and made the Yankees earn every breath. It was the exact kind of leverage work we've been hunting.

9th (A little mess, but we finish):
Topa came in, and the Yankees scratched one on a wild pitch sequence, and a groundout to make it 11–8, but the last out landed. It wasn't pretty at the end—but it was controlled enough to shake hands.
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Final

Royals 11, Yankees 8
Royals (15 H, 1 E) | Yankees (13 H, 0 E)

Player of the Game: Drew Waters — 4-for-5, HR, 5 RBI, 2 R
Royals streak: 5 straight wins

Kansas City Pitching Scoreline
Pitcher             Dec            IP   H    R   ER   BB    K   HR    PI    ERA
Montgomery, J.                    2.1   7    6    6    2    2    2    62   4.92
Paulino, A.       W (2-0)         3.2   3    1    1    0    3    0    50   3.72
Ferguson, C.      H (2)           2.0   1    0    0    0    1    0    28   2.81
Topa, J.                          1.0   2    1    1    0    0    0    15   6.35

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Front Office Note / Takeaways

The good: we didn't fold. Down 7–1, we kept playing our brand—pressure, traffic, and relentless at-bats. That 5th inning was the spark, and Waters’ 6th-inning homer was the gas can. This was a comeback built on decision-making and pace, not hope.

The problem: we paid for it. Caleb Ferguson left with shoulder inflammation and the early read is 1–2 weeks. He'll go to the IL, which forces our hand heading into the Dodgers road leg at the end of this 13-game stretch. We'll dig into Omaha—rotation and bullpen lines—because somebody's about to get a cup of coffee, and I want it to be the right one.

Today was a reminder of how wide our organization's lens has to be: while the big club is grinding out division wins, we're also laying breadcrumbs internationally—McLeod's Taiwan trip and the Ka-pa Chuang discovery being the kind of quiet move that looks small now and looks smart later if the bat develops.

Figure 19.1 — International Scouting Discovery: Ka-Pa Chuang (KC International Complex)



Perspective: Profile snapshot of Ka-Pa Chuang, the 16-year-old Taiwanese first baseman signed via scouting discovery and assigned to the KC International Complex. The early report reads like a development project: raw right-handed power potential with contact and approach still in the oven, plus enough arm/first-base profile to justify patience. A long-horizon bet—exactly the kind of quiet move that can pay off years later if the bat catches up to the body and work ethic.

Around the League

A quiet Thursday around the league, or teams are just keeping quiet before the storm.
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👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑

Kansas City Royals | Regular Season 2025 - Game 71



(OOTP25 Royals Journey — GM/Manager's Dual Log)