Yankees defeat Royals, lose Judge
Aaron Judge homered in the first inning but exited five innings later with a left oblique injury as the New York Yankees rolled to a 9-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
The game was marred by Judge exiting with the injury after hitting a single in the sixth.
He appeared to feel something as he swung. He ran gingerly to first base and trainer Steve Donahue immediately popped out of the dugout. After being checked out by Donahue, Judge exited the game and was replaced by Tyler Wade.
Mike Tauchman and DJ LeMahieu hit New York's first set of back-to-back homers this season when they homered into the right-center field seats to extend the lead to 6-0.
Manager Aaron Boone was not around to see those homers after getting ejected in the third after a three-run home run by Gleyber Torres was overturned by fan interference.
Torres' fly ball appeared to have enough to clear the fence but a fan reached over and tried to make a barehanded catch as left fielder Alex Gordon attempted to make a leaping catch.
The Royals challenged the call and following a lengthy review to overturn it, Boone raced out of the dugout and was ejected by second base umpire Jerry Meals. Upon being tossed for the fifth time as a manager, Boone briefly argued with first base umpire Ron Kulpa before heading off the field.
Judge and Clint Frazier homered in the opening two innings off Royals starter Heath Fillmyer (0-1).
The Yankees added two runs on RBI singles by Torres and Frazier in the sixth and another run on a base hit by Austin Romine in the seventh.
Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) allowed a homer to Whit Merrifield in the sixth among four hits and rebounded from a sub-par outing Sunday against the Chicago White Sox in seven innings. He settled down after throwing 11 of 20 pitches out of the strike zone and allowing two walks in the first inning and also was aided by a pair of double plays started by Torres at shortstop.
Before the Yankees broke the game open in the fourth, Tanaka allowed a leadoff triple to Billy Hamilton. He stranded the speedster at third by getting two strikeouts and a groundout.
--Field Level Media
