Kansas City Royals vs New York Yankees Box Score on Apr 20, 2019

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 otherwise wildly successful game for the Yankees was marred by Judge exiting with the injury after hitting a single in the sixth with his team up 6-1.

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.

Speaking to reporters after the game, manager Aaron Boone said that Judge was getting an MRI exam. Asked if Judge could avoid a trip to the injured list, Boone replied, "Probably not. No."

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 in the fourth to extend the lead to 6-0.

Boone was not around to see those homers following his third-inning ejection for arguing 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 umpires overturned the home run call. 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) surrendered a homer to Whit Merrifield in the sixth among the four hits he gave up, but rebounded from a sub-par outing Sunday against the Chicago White Sox with seven strong 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 in the top of the third. He stranded the speedster at third by getting two strikeouts and a groundout.

--Field Level Media