Aaron Judge slugged a tiebreaking homer to open the seventh inning for the host New York Yankees, who completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with 4-3 victory on Wednesday night.
The Yankees completed their second sweep of the season and first since scoring 36 runs in three games against the Milwaukee Brewers in their first series of 2025.
Judge homered for the first time since April 4 at Pittsburgh when he hit a flyball on a 1-0 sinker from John Schreiber (1-1) that carried into the New York bullpen beyond the right-center field fence.
Judge’s seventh homer of the season was part of a three-hit showing for the Yankee captain, who is hitting .409. He also reached base four times by being intentionally walked for the third time this season.
Judge’s first homer in nearly two weeks occurred after New York starter Clarke Schmidt allowed three runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. Schmidt struck out two and walked two in his season debut after missing over a month with rotator cuff tendinitis.
Anthony Volpe ripped a two-run double in the third off Kansas City starter Kris Bubic. Cody Bellinger added an RBI double in the fourth as the Yankees took a 3-1 lead.
Schmidt allowed an RBI single to Salvador Perez in the opening inning before retiring the next 11 batters. Kyle Isbel hit an RBI triple in the fifth and scored the tying run on a groundout by Jonathan India.
Schmidt was lifted after 73 pitches following a walk to Maikel Garcia, who was caught stealing during an at-bat to MJ Melendez with Mark Leiter Jr. (2-1) on the mound. Leiter also struck out two in the seventh and Fernando Cruz pitched two innings for his first career save.
Cruz stranded a runner in the ninth when Bellinger made a diving catch in right field on a sinking liner by Melendez to end the game.
Bubic, who entered second in the AL with an 0.96 ERA, allowed three runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. The left-hander struck out six and walked four.
The Royals lost for the fifth time in six games and were held to 12 hits in the series.
