Boston Red Sox

Chris Sale

Left-hander did more than just earn his 100th career victory July 6. He also reached a milestone.

His 12 strikeouts against the Kansas City Royals, who had fewer whiffs than any team in the majors, gave him a streak of 66 strikeouts without allowing a homer over his last six starts. The only other American League pitchers with 65 or more strikeouts and no homers over a six-start span are Nolan Ryan (1972, 1973), Rogers Clemens (1998), and Pedro Martinez (1999, 2001).

It was Sale’s eighth doubledigit strikeout game of the season (two behind leader Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals), fourth straight and fifth in six starts. Sale threw 99 pitches in six innings.

“It’s always good when he

Alex

can go six for us,” manager

said. “We take care of him, he goes about his business and we move on. Whatever he can save right now is going to benefit him and us in the future.”

❚ led off that game with the 100th home run of his career. It was his 16th career homer leading off a game and his fifth this season, matching George Springer for most in the majors. The only other Red Sox hitters to hit 100 homers before their 26th birthday were Tony Conigliaro (160), Jim Rice (133) and Ted Williams (127).

Cora Mookie Betts

The pair also hit consecutive leadoff homers May 26 against the Los Angeles Angels.

“You feed off that. It brings good energy,” Judge said. “You’ve got your game plan set up for the starting pitcher. To see your leadoff hitter go out there and get that first one on the board, it pumps everybody up and says, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and attack this guy.’ That’s what we were able to do.”

It was Gardner’s 14th career leadoff homer, tied for sixth in Yankees history, and third this season. Five of his six homers this season and 11 of his last 14 had either tied the game or given the Yankees the lead.

Judge is the second Yankees hitter with at least 25 homers in consecutive seasons before the All-Star break, joining Roger Maris (1960, 1961).

❚ Right-hander has allowed three or fewer

Luis Severino

runs in 16 consecutive starts, passing Ron Guidry (1978) for the longest such streak by a Yankees pitcher in the live ball era (since 1920).