JUDGE HITS SEVENTH HR IN AS MANY DAYS IN N.Y. VICTORY

Aaron Judge hit his seventh home run in seven games and the New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-2 on Friday night.

Anthony Rizzo also homered for the surging Yankees, who improved to 9-3 in their last 12 games.

Judge, who received a standing ovation from the many Yankees fans in attendance following his pregame batting session, wasted little time making his presence felt in the teams’ first meeting in Cincinnati since 2017. The reigning AL MVP took the fifth pitch he saw from Reds starter Ben

Yankees 6, Reds 2

Lively (1-2) 431 feet to center field for his 13th home run of the season.

It was Judge’s only hit of the night, but he has homered in five of the last seven games — including hitting two in two games during that stretch.

With New York still leading 1-0 lead before the bottom half of the fifth inning, all four umpires administered a foreign substance check on Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt. The umpires allowed Schmidt to stay on the mound after he appeared to clean off his glove hand.

But Reds manager David Bell was ejected while disputing the umpires’ decision to allow Schmidt to continue his scoreless outing. Cincinnati had just three hits off Schmidt at that point.

Hendricks moves forward

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks took another step Friday in his comeback from cancer, throwing live batting practice, though it remains unclear when he will return to the bullpen.

Manager Pedro Grifol said Hendriks threw about 20 pitches and “felt good.” But he also said several times there’s still no timetable on a return and that the organization will determine the next step.

Hendriks went from noticing lumps on his neck last summer to being diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He announced last month he was in remission after having immunotherapy and chemotherapy. He began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte two weeks ago and made six appearances with the minor league club before the White Sox opted to bring him back to Chicago this week.

Bullpen session for deGrom

Rangers star pitcher Jacob

deGrom said he has “turned a corner” in returning to the active roster by throwing a 25-pitch bullpen session.

“For sure, feel like I’ve turned a corner,” said deGrom, sidelined since April 28 with elbow inflammation. “Everything felt good. Definitely headed in the right direction. I’m ready to go back out there.”

The 25-pitch workout was a step forward from his previous session a few days earlier, when he threw “16 or 18” pitches. The goal for his next outing will be to throw a simulated game, during which he’ll throw, take a break, and then throw again.

Cubs DFA Hosmer

The Cubs placed outfielder Cody Bellinger on the injured list, sent struggling reliever Keegan Thompson back to Triple-A Iowa and designated former All-Star first baseman Eric Hosmer for assignment.

To fill the roster gaps by the moves, Chicago activated infielder Nico Horner from the injured list and brought infielder Edwin Rios and outfielder Mike Tauchman up from Iowa.

Hosmer, 33, hit .234 with two homers and 14 at-bats in 94 at-bats for Chicago after being traded from the Padres to the Red Sox last summer.