KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Interstat) — Gerrit Cole struck out 10 over six and two-thirds scoreless innings in his second start after Tommy John surgery, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 7-0 on Wednesday night, extending their winning streak against the Royals to 14 consecutive games.

Cole threw 79 pitches, allowing four hits and no walks. He retired the first nine batters he faced before Michael Massey doubled with one out in the third inning, but Cole escaped the inning when right fielder Aaron Judge threw out Maikel Garcia trying to score from first on a single. Cole’s performance, his second straight without an earned run, continued a remarkable return from the 2024 World Series. He struck out two in the first, two more in the second and fanned two Royals in the third, then struck out two more in the fourth and one more in the fifth before leaving after allowing a one-out single to Salvador Perez in the seventh.

Ben Rice drove in three runs, Ryan McMahon hit a two-run homer and Paul Goldschmidt and Judge also drove in runs for the Yankees (34-22). The Yankees scored two runs in the fourth, three in the seventh and two in the eighth, capping a three-game sweep and their 22nd win in their last 23 series against Kansas City. The Royals (22-34) have lost six of their last seven games.

The game was scoreless through three innings. In the fourth, Goldschmidt led off with a single. Rice tripled to left field, scoring Goldschmidt, and Judge brought in Rice with a sacrifice fly to right field. The inning ended with a strikeout and a groundout, but the Yankees held a 2-0 lead.

Cole retired the Royals in order in the fourth and fifth innings, striking out three over that span. Kansas City threatened in the sixth when Garcia doubled to left with two outs, but Bobby Witt Jr. flied out to Judge to end the inning.

The Yankees broke the game open in the seventh. Trent Grisham singled, Anthony Volpe walked and McMahon singled to load the bases with no outs. Jose Caballero lined out, and Austin Wells struck out. Goldschmidt then walked to force in Grisham. Rice followed with a two-run single to center, scoring Volpe and McMahon and giving the Yankees a 5-0 lead.

In the eighth, McMahon added a two-run homer to left field, his fifth of the season, scoring Grisham, who had walked earlier in the inning. That capped the scoring at 7-0.

Cole was lifted after 79 pitches in the seventh. Fernando Cruz relieved and pitched one and one-third scoreless innings, allowing no hits. Camilo Doval pitched a perfect ninth, striking out none but securing the shutout.

Noah Cameron (2-4) took the loss for Kansas City, allowing two earned runs on four hits over five innings. He struck out four and walked one. The Royals bullpen allowed five runs over four innings, with Mason Black giving up two earned runs in two innings and Alex Lange surrendering one hit but no runs in one-third of an inning.

The Royals managed only four hits, two by Garcia. Massey doubled, and Salvador Perez singled. Kansas City struck out 13 times, including at least once in every inning except the eighth and ninth.

New York’s winning streak over Kansas City dates to the 2024 season. The Yankees swept a three-game series in April at Yankee Stadium by scores of 7-0, 13-4 and 4-2, and they have now won 12 straight regular-season games against the Royals dating to the 2024 season.

The Yankees improved to 34-22 while the Royals fell to 22-34. New York will travel to for a three-game series starting Friday. Kansas City heads to Texas for a three-game set.

The game drew 17,007 fans at Kauffman Stadium and lasted 2 hours, 29 minutes.

Interstatl’s game simulator projected a 4-3 final score line, and Interstatl’s ELO system gave the Yankees a 59.40 percent probability to win. New York was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus-1.5. The total score of 7 went over the over-under line of 8.5.