Aaron Judge homers twice as Yankees beat Royals to complete third-straight sweep

Aaron Judge hit two home runs as the Yankees extended their winning streak to 9 games with a 6–4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday afternoon, which completed the red-hot team’s third-straight sweep.

The team now moves to an MLB-leading 16–6 record.

Judge sent his first solo long ball over the center field fence in the 1st inning off a 93 mph fastball from lefty Daniel Lynch, which marked his 7th homer of the young season. He would hit another solo shot over the right field fence in the 9th inning off righty Josh Staumont, which came as his 7th homer in the past 7 games.

Judge now becomes the hitter with the second-most home runs on the season, behind only his teammate Anthony Rizzo.

The team’s other 4 runs came with a 2-run 5th inning off a pair of RBIs from Isiah Kiner-Falefa and DJ LeMahieu — extending both players’ terrific start to the season, which has seen both players with an above-.300 batting average.

The top of the 7th inning saw the Yankees score twice again, while recording no hits and 0 errors from the Royals. That series of events came when Kiner-Falefa walked to begin the inning, before Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch and LeMahieu walked to load the bases. Judge and Aaron Donaldson then hit into a pair of fielder’s choice RBIs, to give the Yankees a 5–4 lead.

For more coverage of Aaron Judge and the Yankees, head to amNY.com.

Righty Luis Severino got the start for New York, while throwing 5 innings and giving up 4 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk.

The Royals managed a 3-run 3rd inning, which began with trouble for the Pinstripes when center fielder Michael Taylor sent the first pitch of the inning over the right field fence. Severino subsequently loaded the bases on a pair of singles and a walk, before tossing a wild pitch that scored 1 run, and a double to Carlos Santana that allowed a third Royals base runner to cross the plate.

Kansas City’s only other run of the contest came on a sacrifice fly, which was coupled by a throwing error by Aaron Donaldson to allow Kyle Isbel to score.

Still, that wasn’t enough to overcome the 5 runs from the Yankees, who now find themselves solidly atop the AL East.

Clarke Schmidt, Lucas Luetge, Michael King and Aroldis Chapman also took the mound in the game, and collectively held Kansas City scoreless.

As of Sunday, the Yankees boast the 3rd best odds to win the World Series on the popular sports betting site DraftKings at +750 (meaning that gamblers would win $7.50 for every $1 wagered).