Yankees stay hot, rout Orioles 12-4
NEW YORK -- Aaron Judge slugged his league-leading 10th home run and scored four times as the New York Yankees continued their roll with a 12-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
Judge became the first American League player to reach double digits when he homered into the New York bullpen beyond the center field wall on a 1-and-0 pitch from Jayson Aquino.
Before hitting fourth home run against the Orioles, Judge drew two walks and singled.
Judge joined Ryan Zimmerman of Washington and Eric Thames of Milwaukee as the only players in the majors with 10 home runs this season.
Brett Gardner and Austin Romine combined for three home runs and nine RBIs for the Yankees, but those became overshadowed by Judge's home run.
Gardner slugged a solo home run and a three-run shot in his first two at-bats against Ubaldo Jimenez (1-1). Romine set a career-high with five RBIs on a sacrifice fly, a two-run single and a two-run home run.
The contributions from their leadoff and ninth-place hitters helped the Yankees match their best 22-game start since 2010 and win for the 14th time in the last 17 games.
Gardner and Romine's big showings helped Michael Pineda (3-1) after he threw 25 pitches in the first inning. Pineda allowed two unearned runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings while using his breaking ball to get seven of eight strikeouts.
Baltimore (14-8) lost its first series of the season as Jimenez was tagged for seven runs -- six earned -- and five hits in 3 1/3 innings. It was the second straight start Jimenez failed to get past the fourth.
Caleb Joseph hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning for Baltimore, which has been outscored 22-4 since the top of the seventh inning on Friday.
Pineda struck out the side in the first, highlighted by winning a 12-pitch battle with Manny Machado. A few minutes later, Gardner slugged his seventh career leadoff home run into the right field seats.
The Yankees added four in the second, the first when Didi Gregorius scored on Romine's fly ball to right. Gardner made it 5-0 when he drove a 1-and-0 pitch into the New York bullpen beyond the center field fence with two runners on.
The Orioles scored two unearned runs in the sixth. Machado doubled and scored on third baseman Chase Headley's throwing error, and Mark Trumbo scored on a wild pitch by Adam Warren.
New York increased the lead to 9-2 when Romine drove a full count offering from Vidal Nuno into the left field seats with one out in the sixth.
The Yankees made it 10-2 on a double by Gregorius and two pitches later Judge homered again.
NOTES: Baltimore RHP Chris Tillman (right shoulder bursitis) of the Orioles will make a fourth rehab start Tuesday when he pitches for Triple-A Norfolk. ... Yankees C Gary Sanchez (strained biceps) took batting practice and did some running without any problems. He is slated to start a rehab assignment next week. ... Orioles LHP Zach Britton (strained left forearm) will continue his rehab assignment with Double-A Bowie on Sunday. ... New York manager Joe Girardi said he thought LHP Aroldis Chapman would be fine after Mark Trumbo's hit deflected off his pitching hand in the 10th inning on Friday.