NEW YORK — Aaron Judge became the second-fastest player in major league history to reach 200 career home runs, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 8-2 on Saturday.
“Excited to get that one out of the way,” Judge said. “Me and (Aaron Hicks) were kind of racing — he’s about to get to 100 and I was trying to get to 200, so we had a little race going on.”
The 6-foot-7 slugger’s 200th homer came in his 671st career game, behind just Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard, who achieved the feat in 2009 in 658 games.
Judge, who gave his first home run ball to his parents, was able to get his 200th from a “good family” without a big negotiation. He believes this one will go to his parents, as well.
DJ LeMahieu homered and had an RBI single, and Matt Carpenter homered for the 15th time in 40 games for New York, which won its third straight after dropping a pair of games to the New York Mets.
The American League-leading Yankees have won seven straight against the Royals and 10 of the last 11.
Whit Merrifield had a third-inning double for his 1,000th career hit and Salvador Perez had a sacrifice fly for the Royals, who have lost five straight.
A day after becoming the first player with 40 home runs this season, Judge fouled off two breaking balls from starter Jonathan Heasley before sending a 2-2 fastball into the right-center field seats for a two-run drive in the second inning. It was one of his two hits, and he also walked twice.
“He smoked it,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “I told him the right fielder would have been moving in if I hit that same ball.”
“I feel like the big numbers, it’s always tough to get past those,” Judge said. “To get that out of the way, plus a win, is pretty sweet.”
Judge has 42 homers this season and is on pace for 67. He is tied with Sammy Sosa and two behind Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire for the most before Aug. 1 in MLB history. Bonds holds the season record with 73 homers in 2001.
A free agent at the end of the season, Judge has nine homers and 21 RBIs with a .436 batting average in 10 games since the All-Star break. After hitting just one homer in his first 13 games, Judge has connected for 36 over his last 79 games and is on pace to surpass Roger Maris’ club record of 61, set in 1961.
“I can’t imagine a person more equipped to go through something like that,” Boone said of Judge. “I know, at his core, what he’s about and that’s this team and us winning and nothing will get in the way of that.”
Yankees All-Star Nestor Cortes (9-3) allowed two runs in five innings. He struck out five and walked two and turned in a nifty fielding play in the second, nabbing Hunter Dozier at third after slipping to the ground while fielding MJ Melendez’s grounder. Cortes has a 2.60 ERA over five July starts.
“Had a little bit of traffic throughout the game that he was able to navigate, but overall, I thought he threw the ball well,” Boone said.
Heasley (1-6), who was reinstated from the injured list prior to the game after missing 17 games with right shoulder tendonitis, allowed six runs over 3 1/3 innings in his first start since July 9.
The Yankees took advantage of back-to-back Kansas City errors in the fourth to break the game open. Rookie Maikel Garcia dropped Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s pop up and Merrifield whiffed on Nicky Lopez’s throw on Jose Trevino’s grounder to allow Kiner-Falefa to reach third. LeMahieu singled to center to chase Heasley, and Andrew Benintendi delivered a sacrifice fly against reliever Wyatt Mills. LeMahieu finished with three hits.
“You make mistakes against good teams, they’re going to make you pay,” Kansas City manager Mike Matheny said. “They made us pay.”
Aroldis Chapman threw a scoreless inning and Clarke Schmidt worked the final three for his second career save.
Toro pinch-hits for hurt J-Rod, leads Mariners past Astros
HOUSTON (AP) — Abraham Toro pinch-hit for injured All-Star Julio Rodriguez and delivered a two-run single with two outs in the ninth inning as the Seattle Mariners rallied past the AL-West leading Houston Astros 5-4 on Saturday night.
Rodriguez was hit on the back of the hand as he swung at a pitch in the top of the eighth inning. He struck out, but played in the field in the bottom half of the inning before being lifted in the ninth.
Seattle manager Scott Servais said Rodriguez would get X-rays later Saturday.
“He did not feel comfortable with a bat in his hand,” Servais said. “So, we’ll pray that it is not broke.”
The 21-year-old Rodriguez, who was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, has 18 homers and 57 RBIs and is batting .274 in his rookie season.
The Mariners beat Houston for the first time since June 8, snapping a five-game losing streak to the Astros.
Ryan Pressly (3-3) entered the ninth inning having converted 21 of his 24 save opportunities this season. Pressly gave up two runs on two hits, walked one and struck out two in the loss in his first blown save since June 23, which came against the New York Yankees.
“He’s somebody that is generally aggressive, so I know he likes to attack the zone,” Toro, who played parts of three seasons with Houston, said of Pressly. “I was already swinging from the get-go.”
Astros manager Dusty Baker added: “He has been a thorn in our side since we traded him over there. It was a big hit that he got tonight.”
Erik Swanson (2-0) pitched a scoreless eighth inning and earned the win, and Paul Sewald recorded his 13th save in 16 attempts.
“We’ve had some crazy come-from-behind wins, crazy games since I’ve been here,” Servais said. “This one may be near the top of the list with all the stuff that happened and where we’re at.”
Seattle starter Chris Flexen set down eight straight batters at one point, but didn’t figure in the decision. Flexen allowed two runs on three hits with four walks and a strikeout in 5 1/3 innings.