Judge's 2 HRs lead Yanks
Aaron Judge became the first big leaguer with 40 homers this season, smashed a grand slam for No. 41 and robbed a home run in right field as the New York Yankees rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals 11-5 Friday night.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning as New York completed its major leagueleading 29th comeback victory.
Judge was lavished with “MVP!” chants throughout the night, none louder than after his slam in the eighth cemented yet another Yankees rally. He also had a single and finished with six RBIs.
Judge and Anthony Rizzo homered early on a rainy night in the Bronx, but Kansas City came back against Gerrit Cole, with Whit Merrifield’s two-run single in the fifth ending a scoreless drought of 31 2/3 innings for the Royals. Salvador Perez followed Merrifield with a go-ahead, three-run homer in his return from the injured list.
PADRES 10, TWINS 1 » Jorge Alfaro launched a threerun homer, Luke Voit and All-Star Manny Machado each hit a two-run shot and San Diego had its first fivehomer game in more than a year in a win over AL Central-leading Minnesota.
METS 6, MARLINS 4 » Starling Marte homered, tripled and drove in three runs, Brandon Nimmo broke an eighth-inning tie with a two-run shot as New York overcame two early deficits to defeat Miami and run its winning streak to four games.
ORIOLES 6, REDS 2 » Cedric Mullins hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in a fourrun ninth inning, and Baltimore beat Cincinnati to move two games over .500 for the first time since April 2021.
BRAVES 5, DIAMONDBACKS 2» Austin Riley had a homer and three RBIs, Kyle Wright earned his NL-leading 13th victory and Atlanta topped Arizona.
CARDINALS 6, NATIONALS 2 » Nolan Gorman and Lars Nootbaar hit back-to-back homers in the sixth inning as St. Louis beat Washington and won consecutive games for the first time since July 15-16.
PHILLIES 4, PIRATES 2, 10 INNINGS » Rhys Hoskins drilled a go-ahead tworun homer in the top of the 10th to lift Philadelphia past Pittsburgh.
GUARDIANS 4, RAYS 1 » José Ramirez hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the fifth, Shane Bieber struck out eight in seven innings and Cleveland beat Tampa Bay.
TIGERS 4, BLUE JAYS 2 » Willi Castro homered for the second time in two games, Victor Reyes had three hits, and Detroit beat Toronto.
BREWERS 4, RED SOX 1 » Christian Yelich drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the seventh inning, Brandon Woodruff struck out nine and Milwaukee won in its return to Boston for the first time in eight years.
ASTROS 11, MARINERS 1 » Justin Verlander pitched one-run ball into the eighth inning and won his MLBleading 14th game, Aledmys Díaz hit two homers and Yordan Alvarez slugged his 30th home run of the season to lead Houston past Seattle.
A’S 7, WHITE SOX 3 » Seth Brown hit two solo homers, Stephen Piscotty hit a three-run shot, and James Kapriellian pitched six strong innings for Oakland.
Judge