The New York Yankees rolled past the Kansas City Royals, 8-2, on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. With the victory, New York has taken the first three games of this four-game series.
Nestor Cortes started for the Yankees and surrendered a pair of runs over five innings of work while striking out five. The left-hander improved to 9-3 on the season.
New York jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. DJ LeMahieu drilled a leadoff home run into the bullpen in right-center. That was his 10th long ball of the season. Later in the inning, Gleyber Torres hammered one into the gap in right-center for a run-scoring double.
Aaron Judge launched his Major-League-leading 42nd home run over the right-field wall in the bottom of the second to extend the lead to 4-0.
Salvador Perez put the Royals on the board in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly.
Kansas City plated their second run of the game in the top of the fourth and cut the Yankees’ lead in half as Maikel Garcia ripped an RBI single. In the bottom of the frame, LeMahieu collected his second RBI of the afternoon with a single up the middle. Then, Andrew Benintendi lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 6-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, Isiah Kiner-Falefa stole third and then scored on a throwing error to add to the lead.
Matt Carpenter smacked his 15th home run of the season over the right-field wall in the bottom of the seventh to cap off the scoring.
LeMahieu and Judge combined for five of the team’s eight hits.
Aroldis Chapman tossed a 1-2-3 inning in relief, and Clarke Schmidt recorded the final nine outs of the game to pick up his second three-inning save of the season.
The Yankees will go for the four-game sweep on Sunday with left-hander Jordan Montgomery on the mound. The first pitch is slated for 1:35 p.m.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].