Aaron Judge becomes second fastest player to hit 200 homers

(New York) Aaron Judge became the second fastest player in Major League history to reach the 200 career home run mark, and the New York Yankees crushed the Kansas City Royals 8-2 on Saturday after- midday.

DJ LeMahieu hit a home run and added a productive single and Matt Carpenter homered for the 15th^e times in 40 games with the Yankees, who picked up their third straight win after back-to-back losses to the New York Mets.

Leaders in the American League, the Yankees have won their last seven meetings against the Royals, and 10 of their last 11.

In the loss, a fifth in a row for the Royals, Whit Merrifield hit his 1,000^e career hit with a double in the third inning, while Salvador Perez scored a run with a sacrifice fly.

Judge, who on Friday became the first Major League player to hit a 40^e home run in 2022, first hit two fouls against starter Jonathan Heasley in the second inning. Then, with a count of two balls and two strikes, he fired the next pitch, a fastball, into the right center field bleachers for a two-run homer.

It was one of his two hits in the game. Judge also batted out two walks.

The six-foot-seven giant slammed his 200^e sound circuit 671^e major league career game. Ryan Howard, formerly of the Philadelphia Phillies, is the only one to have done better with his 200^e circuit at sa 658^e party in 2009.

Judge is homering 42 this season and at this rate he will hit 67. He is tied with Sammy Sosa and trailing two behind Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire for the most long runs before the 1^er August in Major League Baseball history.

Bonds holds the record for most home runs in a season, with 73 in 2001.

Judge, who is likely to become a free agent at the end of the season, has nine home runs and 21 RBIs with a .447 batting average in 10 games since returning from the All-Star Game break.

After being limited to one homer in his first 13 meetings, Judge has hit 36 ​​in his last 79 games. He can still eclipse the team record of 61 homers, set by Roger Maris in 1961.

On the mound for the Yankees, Nestor Cortes (9-3) gave up two runs in five innings. He scored five strikeouts and walked two. In five starts in July, his ERA was 2.60.

Aroldis Chapman and Clarke Schmidt have strewn two hits over the last four innings. Schmidt took charge of the last three and recorded a second career save.

Heasley (1-6), whose name was reinstated from the disabled list before the game, gave up six runs in three-and-a-third innings in what was his first start since July 9. He had missed 17 games because of tendonitis in his right shoulder.