SEATTLE — Aaron Judge hit the 101st homer of his career, Gary Sanchez, DJ LeMahieu and Mike Ford also went deep, and the New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 7-3 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.
After opening their West Coast swing by being swept in Oakland, the Yankees rebounded to win 5 of6 and continued to bash home runs.
Sanchez hit a towering two-run homer in the first off Seattle starter Justus Sheffield, a ball that barely stayed fair and nearly bounced out of the stadium. Ford snapped a 2-2 tie with his sixth home run in the past 14 games, and Judge, who hit his milestone 100th homer a day earlier, broke the game open with a two-run shot off reliever Matt Wisler as part of New York’s four-run fifth inning.
LeMahieu added his 23rd of the season in the ninth. The Yankees have hit 70 home runs in August and raised their season total to 250, already eighth-most in major league history.
James Paxton (11-6) had a shaky outing facing his former team for the first time. The big left-hander allowed only one hit on Kyle Seager’s two-run homer in the fourth inning that just eluded the reach of Judge at the fence in right field. Despite giving up just the one hit, Paxton was done after only five innings due to control problems. Paxton issued a season-high five walks, four in the fourth inning alone. He’d allowed six walks over 24 1/3 innings in his previous four starts combined.
Paxton threw 86 pitches, 45 for strikes. Paxton spent his first six seasons with the Mariners, including throwing a no-hitter last year, before being traded to New York in the offseason.
Seattle had just one hit until Tom Murphy doubled in the ninth.
Sheffield (0-1) was just as much in the spotlight as the centerpiece of what Seattle got in return in the Paxton trade. Sheffield showed flashes in his second career start, like striking out Judge looking in the first inning on a sharp slider at the knees. But he missed his spots on the pitches to Sanchez and Ford and paid for it, giving up the long ball.
Sheffield allowed six hits and struck out five.
ROYALS 6, ATHLETICS 4: Hunter Dozier homered before driving in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, Ryan O’Hearn also went deep and Kansas City held on to beat visiting Oakland.
Tim Hill (2-0) tossed two perfect innings in relief of Jakob Junis for the Royals, and Ian Kennedy survived a harrowing ninth inning to pick up his 23rd save of the season.
Kennedy walked Jurickson Profar to begin the inning, then struck out Chris Herrmann and Corban Joseph. Marcus Semien singled to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, but Kennedy got Robbie Grossman to hit a lazy flyball to left field to end the game.
INDIANS 4, TIGERS 2: Jason Kipnis homered twice and Francisco Lindor also went deep to lift visiting Cleveland to yet another win over Detroit.
Cleveland is 14-1 against the last-place Tigers this year.
Aaron Civale (2-3) pitched seven solid innings for Cleveland. Nick Goody worked the eighth, and Brad Hand finished for his 32nd save in 37 chances.
Detroit starter Jordan Zimmermann allowed two runs in six innings, but Buck Farmer (5-5) allowed Lindor’s one-out solo shot in the eighth, which bounced of the top of the wall and over in center field. That gave the Indians a 3-2 lead.
Kipnis, who opened the scoring with a solo shot in the second, added another in the ninth. It was his third multihomer game of the year and the seventh of his career.
Lindor finished a triple shy of the cycle.
Dawel Lugo homered for Detroit in the fifth, tying the game at 1. Both teams scored a run in the sixth. Carlos Santana hit an RBI single, and Willi Castro answered with a sacrifice fly.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
BREWERS 4, CARDINALS 1: Keston Hiura homered and drove in three runs, Jordan Lyles turned in another strong start and Milwaukee snapped visiting St. Louis’ six-game winning streak.
The NL Central-leading Cardinals had won 15 of 18 and were trying for a three-game sweep. The Brewers ended a three-game skid.
Milwaukee got off to a fast start against Jack Flaherty (8-7), who had given up a total of just one run in his previous five starts.
Trent Grisham led off the first inning with a single, went to third on a throwing error by second baseman Kolten Wong and scored on a groundout by Hiura. Milwaukee made it 2-0 in the second inning when Ryan Braun doubled and later scored on Orlando Arcia’s sacrifice fly.
Hiura hit a solo home run in the fourth, sending a 3-0 fastball from Flaherty into the left-field seats. Hiura added an RBI double in the eighth.
Lyles (9-8), acquired from Pittsburgh in a trade on July 29, set the tone for Milwaukee. The right-hander, who had held Arizona hitless in a six-inning outing in his last start, struck out five of the first seven Cardinals. He fanned nine in 5 1/3 innings.
CUBS 10, METS 7: Kyle Schwarber hit one of Chicago’s three homers against a stunned Noah Syndergaard, and the Cubs built an early nine-run lead before closer Craig Kimbrel held off host New York in the ninth inning.
Nicholas Castellanos and Ian Happ also took Syndergaard (9-7) deep in the worst start of the 2016 All-Star’s career. Syndergaard allowed 10 runs and three homers – both his most in the majors – and was pulled after three miserable innings the day before his 27th birthday.
Kimbrel entered with a three-run lead and let his first two batters reach in the ninth. He escaped a dicey 3-0 count against red-hot Amed Rosario with a fielder’s choice, struck out Juan Lagares and got Todd Frazier to fly out for his 12th save.
PHILLIES 12, PIRATES 3: J.T. Realmuto had three hits, including a homer and a triple, Corey Dickerson also went deep and Philadelphia got 17 hits to win at home.
Cesar Hernandez contributed three hits and three RBI. Rhys Hoskins doubled, tripled and drove in a run as every Phillies starter had at least one hit and RBI.
Starling Marte homered and had three hits for Pittsburgh, and Josh Bell hit a two-run shot.
REDS 5, MARLINS 0: Aristides Aquino tied a National League rookie mark with his 13th home run this month, powering Anthony DeSclafani and Cincinnati to a win at Miami.
Eugenio Suarez hit his 38th homer, connecting in the fourth straight game for the Reds.
Aquino hit for a three-run drive in the first inning, keeping up a surge that began after he was promoted from the minors Aug. 1.
The 24-year-old outfielder matched the NL homer mark for rookies in a month set by Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers in June 2017.
The major league rookie record for homers in a month is 18 by Rudy York of Detroit in August 1937. Aquino, who got one at-bat in the majors last year, also doubled as the Reds beat Miami for the third straight day.
INTERLEAGUE
NATIONALS 8, ORIOLES 4: Max Scherzer struck out eight to reach the 200 mark for an eighth straight season, Kurt Suzuki homered and drove in four runs and Washington beat visiting Baltimore.
Scherzer allowed two runs and six hits over 4 1/3 innings in his second start since missing a month with a strained back. Although he didn’t factor in the decision, the right-hander took another step toward regaining his All-Star form and remained unbeaten since May 17.
Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver is the only player in major league history with nine successive 200-strikeout seasons. Scherzer’s streak is alone in second place.
Wander Suero (5-7) followed Scherzer and got Trey Mancini to hit into a double play to end the fifth.
It was the sixth win in seven games for the Nationals, who have surged to the top of the wild-card standings behind a robust offense that leads the NL in runs scored this month.
BRAVES 9, BLUE JAYS 4: Freddie Freeman hit his 36th home run and drove in a pair of runs, Matt Joyce homered and had two RBI and Atlanta won at Toronto.
Ronald Acuna Jr. added a two-run double as the NL East-leading Braves snapped a two-game losing streak and won for the ninth time in 11 games.
Braves slugger Josh Donaldson went hitless against his former team for the second straight game. He walked twice and scored in Atlanta’s three-run seventh.
Freeman leads the majors with 107 RBI, one more than Pittsburgh’s Josh Bell.
Joyce is 5 for 10 over his past three games.
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