NEW YORK — Hitting leadoff, Aaron Judge singled twice in a six-run first-inning drive off Corey Kluber, and the New York Yankees began a game with seven straight hits for the first time since 1990 to thrash the Saturday 10-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Josh Donaldson homered early and Giancarlo Stanton homered late on a fly ball. The two returned to the lineup and helped the AL East-leading Yankees move 4 1/2 games ahead of Tampa Bay.
New York also tied the tiebreaker to the Rays themselves, should both teams finish atop the division.
Judge, who leads the majors with 55 home runs, hit three singles and raised his average to .307. He is the first Yankees player to reach base at least three times in seven straight games since Mickey Mantle in June 1957.
The Yankees opened the game with seven hits, all singles. They hadn’t achieved something like this since September 25, 1990, when they had nine hits in a row against Baltimore and won 15-3.
New York had six singles on Kluber’s first 21 pitches (10-8).
Starter Jameson Taillon (13-4) allowed three runs and six hits in 7 1/3 innings to reach 50 career wins.
For the Rays, Cubans Yandy Díaz 3-2, Randy Arozarena 4-0. Mexican Jonathan Aranda 1-1 with a run scored. The Dominicans Wander Franco 4-1 with an RBI, Manuel Margot 4-0, Francisco Mejía 4-0, José Siri 3-2 with two runs scored. Colombian Harold Ramírez 4-1 with two RBIs. The Venezuelan David Peralta 4-0.
For the Yankees, Venezuelans Gleyber Torres 5-2 with one run scored and one produced. Oswaldo Cabrera 4-2 with a run scored and two produced, Marwin González 4-0. The Dominicans Miguel Andújar 4-2 with a run scored and an RBI, Estevan Florial without an official turn but with a run scored.
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Judge and Yankees start with 7 hits and beat Rays