Kansas City Royals vs New York Yankees Box Score on Sep 25, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 25, 2017

NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge tied Mark McGwire's rookie record for homers in the third inning and broke the mark in the seventh as the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 11-3 during a makeup game Monday afternoon.

Judge tied McGwire by hitting a full-count fastball from Jakob Junis (8-3) into the back rows of the lower portion of the right-center field seats with one out in the third. Judge tied McGwire after looking at a called strike two and thinking he walked.

Judge reached 49 in his 150th game and 525th at-bat. McGwire did it in 151 games and 547 at-bats with the Oakland Athletics in 1987.

In his first attempt at getting the 50th homer, Judge struck out with a runner on third in the fifth.

Judge emphatically broke McGwire's mark in his second attempt. He hit a 2-1 breaking ball from Trevor Cahill into the left-center field seats and clearing the Royals bullpen, giving the Yankees a 7-3 lead.

Judge became the fifth Yankee to reach 50 homers and did so in his 527th at-bat, earning a curtain call from fans at Yankee Stadium.

Greg Bird hit a two-run homer and Gary Sanchez followed Judge's record-breaking homer with his 33rd of the season. The Yankees (87-69) lowered their magic number for clinching home field in next Tuesday's wild card game to two and won for the 17th time in 24 games.

Didi Gregorius hit a run-scoring groundout in the first inning, scored on Matt Holliday's double in the sixth and added an RBI single in the eighth. Holliday drove in New York's final run with a sacrifice fly.

Judge came up in the eighth after Brett Gardner's RBI double but drew his 120th walk and was lifted for a pinch runner.

Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer and Mike Moustakas extended his team record with his 38th homer for the Royals.

CC Sabathia (13-5) improved to 9-0 after a Yankee loss this season by allowing three runs on six hits in six-plus innings. He also improved to 4-0 since returning from a brief disabled list stint due a knee injury on Aug. 19.

He took a shutout into the seventh before Perez and Moustakas homered after the Yankees built a 6-0 lead.

Junis lost for the first time in seven decisions since June 29, allowing six runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.

NOTES: Yankees manager Joe Girardi said none of his players have mentioned any protests of the national anthem to him. ... Royals manager Ned Yost said he wants to give SS Alcides Escobar the chance to play in all 162 games. Escobar made his 327th straight start, the longest streak at shortstop for one team since Cal Ripken started 2,216 straight games there from 1982 to 1996 for the Baltimore Orioles. ... Royals CF Lorenzo Cain started at DH for the second time this season and fifth time in his career.