Yankees hit four home runs in rout of Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Having to leave their Bronx bandbox did nothing to slow down the Yankees.

Hitting four homers, including a three-run shot by Aaron Judge in the seventh inning that broke open a close game, the Yankees won their seventh straight Friday night with a 12-2 victory over the Royals in front of 16,460 at Kauffman Stadium.

The game was held up just before the ninth inning because of an approaching thunderstorm, and after a 34-minute delay, it was called.

Besides the Judge blast, which followed an RBI single by DJ LeMahieu in a four-run seventh that turned a 3-2 lead into a far more comfortable margin, the Yankees (14-6) got back-to-back homers from Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton in the first  and a two-run shot by Gleyber Torres in a five-run eighth. Kyle Higashioka added a three-run double in the eighth.

“It was really good to see us string together that level of at-bats in a tight game late to kind of break it open,” Aaron Boone said.

The Yankees have hit 18 homers in their last seven games.  Judge upped his homer total to six, with five of them coming in the last seven games. Rizzo, who hit a two-run shot in the first, leads MLB with nine homers and has 21 RBIs in 20 games.

“There’s just a lot of different ways that guys can beat you,'' Rizzo said. "There’s a lot of contact in the lineup, guys that can manipulate the bat, starting with DJ leading off, or whoever’s leading off. When you have team at-bats like we do and like we’ve been doing, usually things will work out in your favor.”

Said Judge, "Just up and down the lineup, we’ve got guys that can spray the ball around the field, we’ve got the guys in the middle that are going to hit homers, then DJ at the top of the lineup, or Hicksie, that can get on base or drive it out of the park. It’s impressive. I think that’s what makes this team different from other years is just having that diversity throughout the lineup.”

The night was a grind for lefthander Nestor Cortes, the ace of the Yankees’ staff the first month (he entered Friday with no decisions but a 1.15 ERA in three starts). He did not have that kind of sharpness or deception with his pitches against the Royals (7-11) but still left with a 3-2 lead after allowing two runs (one earned) and a season-high seven hits in five innings. Cortes did not walk a batter and struck out three, a season low.

“Quality innings, quality starts are the most important thing for me,'' he said. "As long as I can go five and allow one or two runs, I know that offense will wake up at any point of the game. Our bullpen obviously is lights out, so it’s definitely fun.”

The Yankees went after Royals lefty starter Kris Bubic immediately. LeMahieu, whose 12-game hitting streak ended Wednesday against the Orioles, led off with a double, making it 15 straight games in which he reached base at least once.  

Michael A. Taylor made  a diving catch of Judge's laser to center, but   Rizzo, who entered the night third in the big leagues in slugging (.696) and fourth in OPS (1.098), drove a 0-and-1 fastball to centerfield to make it 2-0 and give him 13 RBIs in his last nine games. Stanton then  roped a 2-and-2 changeup to left for his fourth homer and a 3-0 lead.

Doubles by Whit Merrifield and Savador Perez in the bottom of the first made it 3-1. The Royals  scored again in the second when Edward Olivares singled, went to second on a passed ball and scored on Taylor’s single to left.

Earlier in the second, Bobby Witt Jr. doubled with one out but was picked off and caught in a rundown as Cortes threw to Torres, who caught a break despite making a few mental mistakes. He chased the speedy Witt toward the next base, not the textbook maneuver on a rundown, and never threw the ball as Witt beat him to the bag. Torres was saved by the call of third base umpire Manny Gonzalez, who ruled Witt’s momentum carried him past the bag as he slid (although it was Torres who barreled into him and pushed him off the base). Royals manager Mike Matheny was ejected for making that exact point.

“The first two innings, they were on my stuff,'' Cortes said. "Obviously, I had to make adjustments. We started attacking the outside of the plate more and it gave me better results.”