Judge homers twice as Yanks’ streak reaches 9

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Luis Severino had a good vantage point to watch Aaron Judge send a pitch 453 feet to straightaway center field in the first inning Sunday, and the Yankees starter marveled at the nearly 400foot home run that the slugger added in the ninth.

It was the 30-foot RBI that Judge hit in between that helped get Severino off the hook for a loss.

Along with running his home run streak to three consecutive games, Judge drove in the tying run in the seventh on a checked swing that trundled slowly down the first-base line, helping New York rally for a 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals that pushed the club’s winning streak to nine games.

“What can I say?” Severino asked. “The guy’s a monster.”

Not on that groundout, though. It traveled all of 30 feet. But certainly on the two home runs, which combined to travel nearly the length of three football fields. They gave Judge five in his last five games and eight on the season.

“I mean, the way he cleaned that first one out, man — it’s hard to hit one more pure,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said.

Josh Donaldson drove in the goahead run in the seventh on a fielder’s choice. Clarke Schmidt (2-2) pitched a scoreless inning in relief to earn the win, then was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre afterward. Aroldis Chapman left the tying run on base in the ninth to earn his sixth save on the year and 20th in a row.

ANGELS 6, WHITE SOX 5 Mike Trout homered, doubled and scored three runs, Michael Lorenzen (3-1) pitched into the ninth inning and Los Angeles held off Chicago for its seventh win in eight games.

BLUE JAYS 3, ASTROS 2 Santiago Espinal drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the seventh inning, Bo Bichette added a two-run home run and Toronto edged Houston.

GUARDIANS 7, ATHLETICS 3 Triston McKenzie (1-2) threw 61/ scoreless innings and 3 Cleveland completed its first sweep in Oakland in 22 years.

ORIOLES 9, RED SOX 5 Jordan Lyles (2-2) pitched six gritty innings, Rougned Odor homered in a six-run sixth and Baltimore beat skidding Boston.

TWINS 9, RAYS 3 Jorge Polanco drove in four runs with a pair of doubles, Carlos Correa had his fourth consecutive game with multiple hits and Minnesota beat Tampa Bay.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CARDINALS 7, DIAMONDBACKS 5 Harrison Bader and Nolan Arenado homered in the seventh inning to help St. Louis rally past Arizona and win for the third time in five games and salvage a split of the four-game series.

CUBS 2, BREWERS 0 Marcus Stroman (13) threw two-hit ball for seven innings, outpitching Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes (1-1) and leading Chicago over Milwaukee.

METS 10, PHILLIES 6 Dominic Smith and Starling Marte each drove in three runs as New York defeated Philadelphia. Smith and Jeff McNeil each had four hits for the Mets.

NATIONALS 11, GIANTS 5 Yadiel Hernandez drove in a career-high five runs with three hits as Washington beat San Francisco.

PADRES 5, PIRATES 2 Joe Musgrove (40) struck out eight over seven solid innings and San Diego beat Pittsburgh in a game that was delayed 1 hour, 22 minutes at the start by a line of heavy rain showers.

ROCKIES 10, REDS 1 Kyle Freeland (1-3) tossed seven strong innings for his first win of the season and Colorado completed a series sweep of struggling Cincinnati.

INTERLEAGUE

DODGERS 6, TIGERS 3 Walker Buehler (31) pitched five scoreless innings and Los Angeles beat Detroit and overcame Miguel Cabrera’s 503rd career home run and his first this season. MARINERS 7, MARLINS 3 Logan Gilbert (4-0) kept up his run of impressive starts, Julio Rodriguez hit his first major league home run and Seattle ended Miami’s seven-game winning streak.

RANGERS 7, BRAVES 3 Adolis Garcia highlighted a three-hit, four-RBI day with a bases-clearing triple in the third inning to help Texas beat Atlanta.