NEW YORK (AP) — J.A. Happ had made eight previous starts at Yankee Stadium plus a relief appearance in the final game of the 2009 World Series. This was different.

“It was kind of weird looking down and seeing the pinstripes on me,” he said, “but I’m happy to get used to it.”

James Anthony Happ made the midseason impact the Yankees hoped for, pitching one-run ball over six innings to win his New York debut 6-3 over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

“It’s a significant dude to the rotation,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said in California surfer-speak, “that helps in not just the days he pitches, hopefully, but also just makes our staff and our bullpen as a whole a little bit better,”

Three days after New York acquired the 35-year-old left-hander from Toronto for infielder Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney, Happ took a shutout into the fifth before Salvador Perez’s opposite-field home run into the Yankees bullpen in right-center. Happ (11-6) allowed three hits, struck out two and walked one, and the first-time All-Star ended a four-start winless streak.

Happ had been 4-1 as a visitor in the Bronx. He threw four-seam fastballs on 64 of 96 pitches against the Royals, including his first 13 of the third inning. He mixed in 12 changeups, seven sliders, two curveballs plus 11 two-seam sinking fastballs — all from the third inning on.

“His fastball definitely gets on you, and he likes to pitch in on hitters,” catcher Austin Romine said. “It was weird. We almost felt like I caught him before, he was so much on the same page.”

New York (67-37) won consecutive games for the first time since July 11-2 and remained 5 1/2 games behind AL East-leading Boston. The Yankees sought a boost similar to the one provided by David Cone, who made his Yankees debut exactly 23 years earlier after his acquisition from Toronto and became a key cog in the team that reached that year’s playoffs and won four World Series titles in the following five seasons. Happ joined a rotation that includes Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Sonny Gray.

“I feel like in a lot of ways he’s been underrated over the years,” Boone said. “I feel like he’s more in that upper tier than people want to acknowledge.”

Aaron Hicks hit a two-run homer in the first off the screen attached to the right-field foul pole , a drive off Burch Smith (1-2). Hicks also doubled, singled and walked.

New York took three over four against woeful Kansas City (32-73), which traded star third baseman Mike Moustakas to Milwaukee on Friday for prospects.

Brett Phillips, one of those prospects, started in his Kansas City debut and made a leaping catch at the top of the right-field wall to rob Romine of a possible three-run homer in the fourth. Phillips’ eyes were closed as the ball landed in his glove.

“Did I? Wow, that’s impressive,” Phillips said.

Hunter Dozier homered off Chad Green in the seventh and Rosell Herrera went deep against David Robertson leading off the eighth, the first home run of his big league career . Aroldis Chapman, pitching on consecutive days for the first time since July 1-3, struck out three straight batters for his 28th save in 29 chances , his 20th in a row.

At the time of the trade, Happ and the Blue Jays were in Chicago, where he lives with wife Morgan, 2 1/2-year-old son J.J. and 8-month-old daughter Bella. Morgan flew to Toronto on Saturday morning to pick up some of her husband’s belongings, leaving the kids with the grandparents, and flew out the same day. The kids will join them in New York on Tuesday.

Life has been a whirlwind for the Happs.

“It was a little surreal out there,” he said. “but a lot of fun.”

SEATS

A crowd of 46,192 was New York’s 20th home sellout, matching 2011 for the most at the new Yankee Stadium.

CLEANING UP

Torres and Andujar on Saturday became the first different Yankees rookies to hit cleanup in the starting lineup of consecutive games since Bill Robinson and Steve Whitaker in a doubleheader at Chicago on Aug. 22, 1967.

SWAPS

New York traded LHP Caleb Frare to the Chicago White Sox for $1.5 million in international signing bonus pool allocation, which raised its total to $7,502,600 from an original $5,002,600. The 25-year-old is 4-1 with a 0.81 ERA and five saves of 31 games for Double-A Trenton this year and one for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. On Saturday the Yankees obtained $1 million in allocation along with 1B Luke Voit from St. Louis for relievers Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: OF Brian Goodwin injured his left groin running the bases in the seventh inning Saturday night and a DL stint is possible.

UP NEXT

Royals: LHP Danny Duffy (6-9, 4.70) opens a series at the White Sox on Tuesday.

Yankees: RHP Masahiro Tanaka (8-2, 4.09) starts Tuesday’s series opener against Baltimore and RHP Yefry Ramirez (1-3, 3.49). Tanaka is 6-0 in 12 starts since an April 17 loss at Miami and is coming off a three-hit shutout at Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

— Associated Press —

NEW YORK — The Royals late Friday night agreed to a deal with the Brewers that will send third baseman Mike Moustakas to the Brewers for Minor Leaguers Brett Phillips and Jorge Lopez, a source told MLB.com.

Moustakas, who set the franchise record for home runs in 2017 with 38, agreed to a $5.5 million deal in March with a mutual option in 2019 that contained a $1 million buyout.

The Royals eventually announced the deal with the Brewers on Twitter late Friday night but said general manager Dayton Moore would not be available for comment until Saturday.

Moustakas was hitting .249 with 20 homers and 62 RBIs, and was likely to be dealt because he was on an expiring contract.

In exchange, the Royals, as they try to restock their farm system, picked up two Minor Leaguers who could crack their MLB Pipeline’s top 30 list.

Philips, who was the Brewers’ No. 10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was the Brewers’ sixth-round pick in 2012. He is a left-handed hitter with an above-average arm in Triple-A Colorado who had six homers and 25 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. Last year at Triple A, he posted a .944 OPS at Triple-A. He also had a .799 OPS at Triple-A at Colorado.

Lopez, 25, was once considered the Brewers’ top pitching prospect before moving to relief in 2017. He has shuttled between the big leagues and the Minors six times this season alone while posting a 2.75 ERA in 10 appearances.

— MLB.com —

NEW YORK (AP) — The game between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees scheduled for Friday night was postponed because of rain. The game never started and was called a half-hour after it was supposed to begin.

The game will be made up as part of a split doubleheader Saturday, with games at 12:05 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. Luis Severino (14-3) will move up and pitch the opener for the Yankees and CC Sabathia (6-4) will start the second game.

Sabathia had been set to pitch Friday night on his bobblehead night at Yankee Stadium. Instead, he will pitch the nightcap on 13 days’ rest, a gap extended by rainouts and the All-Star break.

Brad Keller (3-4), who was ready to start Friday night for the Royals on his 23rd birthday, and fellow rookie Heath Fillmyer (0-1) will pitch the doubleheader. Fillmyer grew up in central New Jersey and figures to have plenty of family and friends in the stands for his first game at Yankee Stadium.

The tarp was on the field during the late afternoon and it was raining at the scheduled start time of 6:05 p.m.

— Associated Press —

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 —