NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was hit on his right wrist by a pitch and forced to leave early Thursday night, overshadowing New York’s 7-2 romp past the Kansas City Royals.

The Yankees said Judge was seen by a team doctor at the stadium and taken to a hospital for an MRI. There was no immediate report on the injury.

Normally an All-Star outfielder, Judge was the designated hitter. He winced when he was stung by a fastball from Jakob Junis in the first inning, got an infield hit the next time up and then was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the fourth.

On a busy day for the Yankees, Sonny Gray (8-7) pitched five shutout innings to win three straight starts for the first time since last July. He exited soon after getting nicked in the pitching hand by a hard grounder.

Didi Gregorius hit a three-run homer for New York, which began the day 5 1/2 games behind AL East-leading Boston. Center fielder Aaron Hicks threw out Alex Gordon at the plate to end the game as Gordon tried to score from second on a single.

Before the game, the Yankees obtained Toronto left-hander J.A. Happ in a trade for infielder Brandon Drury and minor league outfielder Billy McKinney. Also, ace reliever Zach Britton tossed a perfect eighth inning in his New York debut, two days after being acquired from Baltimore for three pitching prospects.

There was a strange sighting, too. As Neil Walker batted with two outs in the Yankees seventh, several thousand fans in the sellout crowd suddenly switched on their cell phone lights and shined them toward the field. There was no instant explanation.

Junis (5-11) is 0-8 in 10 starts since beating the Yankees in mid-May. He has allowed a major league-high 25 home runs, and the drive by Gregorius made it 6-0 in the fourth.

Gregorius homered one pitch after shortstop Adalberto Mondesi bounced a throw to first on a routine grounder with two outs. As Gregorius rounded the bases, Mondesi took off his glove and wandered into shallow center field.

Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer in the Royals sixth off Adam Warren.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: Rookie RHP Domingo German, who made 13 starts for the Yankees before being sent to Triple-A last week, left a start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after one inning with what New York GM Brian Cashman said was biceps tendinitis.

UP NEXT

Royals: Rookie RHP Brad Keller (3-4, 3.20 ERA) starts on his 23rd birthday. He pitched a perfect inning in relief against the Yankees in mid-May.

Yankees: LHP CC Sabathia (6-4, 3.51) will start on 12 days’ rest. A rainout and the All-Star break resulted in the long break. He’ll pitch on his bobblehead night in the Bronx.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — When the Kansas City Royals return to Kauffman Stadium on Aug. 6 after a 10-game trip, Mike Moustakas may not be with them.

Moustakas had two hits, including a run-scoring double, in what might have been his final home game for the Royals, an 8-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.

“When you’ve been in this game for quite some time, you realize it’s a business,” Moustakas said. “As long as you’re going out and playing hard, we’ll see what happens.”

A key member of the Royals’ 2015 World Series championship team, Moustakas became a free agent after last season, then signed a one-year contract with the Royals in March that includes a mutual option for 2019. With the Royals last in the AL Central at 31-70, he could be dealt before Tuesday’s deadline for trades without waivers.

He understands general manager Dayton Moore is looking to the future.

“Dayton has made it clear, we’re not giving Moose away,” manager Ned Yost said. “If anyone thinks we’re giving Moose away or it’s his last game, you’re going to have come with something if you want Moose playing on your team, `cause he’s a big part of our team.”

Several other clubs could use a third baseman who is hitting .249 with 20 homers and 62 RBI.

“Obviously, it’s a compliment,” Moustakas said of interest. “But our job is not to worry about that kind of stuff. Our job is to go out and play baseball and control the things we can control on the field. All the other stuff will take care of itself.”

Moustakas ended the game by striking out.

Jose Iglesias hit a three-run homer in a four-run fourth inning against Danny Duffy (6-9). Iglesias is 10 for 27 (.370) against Duffy in his big league career.

“That was huge to give us a little bit of a cushion,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said.”We were patient enough and made Duffy get the ball over the plate, and when he did we got some big hits.”

Victor Martinez had three hits, including a pair of RBI singles. He was 6 for 12 with five RBI in the series and had consecutive games with multiple RBI for the first time since July 17-18 last year, also at Kansas City.

Matthew Boyd (5-9) allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out seven and walking none. He had been 0-5 in seven starts since winning at Boston on June 7.

“We won the series and that’s all that matters,” he said.

Duffy (6-9) gave up seven runs, nine hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings and threw wild pitches that allowed John Hicks to score the go-ahead run in a four-run fourth and Iglesias to come home in the sixth.

“I felt like I made a lot less mistakes than the line probably shows,” Duffy said. “I missed my spot to Iglesias. He’s a good hitter. He turned on that fastball. That was the one that really hurt me. I kind of lost my command for about seven pitches in that inning and it came back to bite me.”

PEN PAL

With three off days in the next nine days, LHP Blaine Hardy will be going back to the bullpen for a time after making nine starts. RHP Mike Fiers, LHP Francisco Liriano and RHP Jordan Zimmermann will start a weekend series against the Indians. “We’re going to try to keep the four guys somewhere near a five-day schedule,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “With all these days off, it’s silly to give them all seven or eight days of rest. We need them to pitch. They need to. They’re routine oriented. When you get them out of those routines, it’s real tough. It gets all out of whack.”

SUN BATHERS

The Tigers lead the majors with 51 days games. They are 25-26 in matinees. The Royals are 14-28 in the afternoon.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Twins: RHP Michael Fulmer (oblique strain) is out indefinitely.

Royals: OF Jorge Soler (broken left toe) remains on crutches and won’t be returning anytime soon after placed on the DL on June 16.

UP NEXT

Tigers: Fiers (7-6) starts against Cleveland on Friday in the opener of a five-game homestand.

Royals: RHP Jakob Junis (5-10) starts Thursday at the New York Yankees. He is 0-7 in nine starts since a May 18 victory over the Yankees.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Burch Smith picked up his first win in nearly five years, Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez homered, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 5-4 on Tuesday night.

Smith (1-1) gave up just one hit — a single by Niko Goodrum to leadoff the fourth — and walked two while striking out six in 6 1/3 innings. He got his second career win, and first since Sept. 15, 2013, for San Diego against Atlanta.

Injuries limited the right-hander’s career to just 5 1/3 innings the next three seasons. The Royals obtained Smith in the Rule 5 draft last December. He was making his third start of the year after beginning the season with 24 relief appearances.

Smith retired nine straight after Goodrum’s single before walks to Nicholas Castellanos and Jeimer Candelario with one out in the seventh ended his night.

Tim Hill came on and gave up a three-run homer to Victor Martinez, the only batter he faced, in a 10-pitch at-bat as Detroit pulled to 5-3. Kevin McCarthy retired all five batters he faced, and Wily Peralta gave up at triple to Castellanos and a run-scoring grounder to Candelario in the ninth before finishing up for his fifth save.

Whit Merrifield doubled to open the first and scored on Moustakas’ 20th homer, into the Royals’ bullpen, in the first off Jordan Zimmermann (4-2).

Perez, who finished with three hits, had an RBI single in the third, a solo homer in the fifth, and a double in the eighth.

Jorge Bonifacio doubled and scored on Jose Iglesias’ fielding error on Brian Goodwin’s grounder in the sixth to make it 5-0.

Zimmermann, who had not worked in 13 days and had two cortisone shots for back pain, gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings. He lost to the Royals for the first time after coming in 4-0 with a 1.48 ERA in seven career appearances against Kansas City.

BRETT WELCOMES TRUMP

Royals Hall of Fame 3B George Brett welcomed President Donald Trump on Tuesday to Kansas City, meeting him at the airport. Trump was in town to speak to the VFW national convention and for a fundraiser for Republican senatorial candidate Josh Hawley.

The day also marked the 35th anniversary of Brett’s Pine Tar Game at Yankee Stadium.

MOUSTAKAS JOIN POWER ELITE

Moustakas joins six other Royals with four seasons of 20 or more home runs. The others are Brett, Carlos Beltran, Steve Balboni, Bo Jackson, Mike Sweeney and John Mayberry.

ROSTER MOVES

Royals: INF Adalberto Mondesi was reinstated from the family medical emergency leave list. To make roster space, the Royals optioned OF Paulo Orlando, who hit .167 in 25 games, to Triple-A Omaha.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Tigers: RHP Johnny Barbato (rotator cuff tendinitis) allowed three runs on one hit and two walks, while retiring only two in a rehab start with Class-A Lakeland. … Highly-touted prospect RHP Kyle Funkhouser, 24, fractured his right foot fifth metatarsal while walking home after a game. Funkhouser, a 2016 fourth round pick out of Louisville, was recently promoted to Triple-A Toledo.

Royals: RHP Blaine Boyer (lower back strain) made 13 pitches and retired two batters in a minor league rehab start Tuesday for Double-A Northwest Arkansas. He walked one and struck out one. RHP Jesse Hahn (elbow strain) threw one scoreless inning in the second game of the doubleheader against Arkansas. He allowed one hit, throwing six strikes in 10 pitches.

UP NEXT

Tigers: LHP Matthew Boyd is 0-2 with a 3.46 ERA in two starts against KC this season.

Royals: LHP Danny Duffy is 5-2 with a 2.58 ERA in his past 11 starts.

— Associated Press —