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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Aroldis Chapman threw a scoreless inning and Clarke Schmidt worked the final three for his second career save.
UP NEXT
Zack Greinke (3-6, 3.44 ERA) takes to the mound for Kansas City in the series finale. He’ll be opposed by LHP Jordan Montgomery (3-3, 3.50 ERA). Game time is at 12:35 this afternoon. You can hear the broadcast of the Royals’ Radio Network on KMMO AM 1300.