CHICAGO (AP) — Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer and drove in four, helping the Kansas City Royals pound the sloppy Chicago White Sox 10-5 on Wednesday night.

Gordon also walked and scored during Kansas City’s five-run fifth. Brett Phillips added two hits and Ryan O’Hearn singled in a run in his second major league game as the last-place Royals posted consecutive wins for the first time since they won three in a row from July 20-22, matching their season high.

Jakob Junis (6-11) pitched 5 2/3 innings of four-run ball in his first win since May 18. The 24-year-old right-hander was 0-8 with a 6.67 ERA in his previous 10 starts.

Chicago lost for the sixth time in seven games. Yoan Moncada broke out of a slump with his fifth career leadoff homer, two hits and two walks, but he also committed one of two costly errors for the White Sox.

With one out and runners on first and second in the fifth, lumbering Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez hit a hard grounder to third. Yolmer Sanchez threw to second looking to start a double play, but the ball went off the top of Moncada’s glove and into right field.

Whit Merrifield jogged home to make it 4-1 Royals. Lucas Duda, Rosell Herrera and Phillips followed with run-scoring hits, and a wild pitch brought home another run before Alcides Escobar lined to right for the final out of the inning.

Another error — this one on a bad throw by pitcher Dylan Covey (4-7) — helped set up Gordon’s two-out, two-run double in the third. Covey was charged with seven runs, four earned, and five hits in 4 1/3 innings, dropping to 1-5 with an 8.89 ERA in his last six starts.

Gordon’s drive to right off Tyler Danish made it 10-1 in the sixth. It was Gordon’s first homer since July 10 and No. 7 on the year.

Junis, who is from Rock Hills, Illinois, about two hours west of Chicago, allowed six hits, struck out five and walked three. He surrendered five homers in 5 2/3 innings in a 6-3 loss to Chicago on April 26 in his first career appearance against the White Sox.

Junis was pulled after Leury Garcia’s two-run single in the sixth. Garcia also had an RBI single in the eighth against Glenn Sparkman.

UP NEXT

Royals right-hander Brad Keller (4-4, 3.43 ERA) and White Sox right-hander Reynaldo Lopez (4-9, 4.57 ERA) pitch in the series finale Thursday afternoon. Keller, who turned 23 on Friday, has won each of his last two starts. Lopez is 0-4 with an 8.72 ERA in his last four games.

— Associated Press —

CHICAGO (AP) — Ryan O’Hearn got the ball from his first major league hit. Brett Phillips got his bats back.

For one night at least, everything was all right with the Kansas City Royals.

O’Hearn hit a two-run homer in his big league debut, helping Danny Duffy and the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 4-2 on Tuesday.

“Today was the most fun I had at a baseball field, once I kind of settled down a little bit, ever,” O’Hearn said. “I’m ready to get back tomorrow.”

Phillips also hit a two-run shot for last-place Kansas City, which had dropped four of five. Duffy (7-9) pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, rebounding nicely from a rocky start against Detroit.

It was Phillips’ first hit since he was acquired Friday in the trade that sent third baseman Mike Moustakas to Milwaukee. Phillips had to use Hunter Dozier’s bat for his Kansas City debut Sunday against the Yankees after his lumber got lost while he was flying to New York to join his new team.

He was reunited with his bats in time for the series opener against Chicago, and he looked quite comfortable on his fifth career homer in the seventh.

“It’s always a blessing to help the team win in any way you can,” Phillips said.

The White Sox lost for the fifth time in six games. They wasted prime scoring opportunities in the fourth and eighth, and another threat in the sixth was curtailed by a mental mistake by Tim Anderson — prompting manager Rick Renteria to replace the young shortstop.

Matt Davidson hit a two-run shot in the seventh for his eighth homer against the Royals this season. But Tim Hill got one out, Jason Hammel worked a rocky eighth and Wily Peralta finished for his sixth save.

Playing in front of his parents, brother and sister, O’Hearn bounced to first in his first at-bat in the second. He came up again with one out and a runner on first in the fifth, and drove a 1-0 pitch from James Shields (4-13) over the wall in right .

O’Hearn, an eighth-round pick in the 2014 draft who turned 25 on Thursday, was promoted from Triple-A Omaha before the game. He became the third player in franchise history to homer in his major league debut, joining Clint Hurdle in 1977 and Mark Quinn in 1999.

“It was fun to watch,” Duffy said.

O’Hearn also walked and scored on Phillips’ homer.

Duffy allowed six hits, struck out seven and walked four. The left-hander went 3-2 with a 3.38 ERA in six July starts.

Duffy got some help when the speedy Anderson failed to run out a low liner to third baseman Rosell Herrera with runners on first and second in the sixth. Third base umpire Lance Barksdale ruled the ball hit the ground — it looked as if it might have been caught cleanly — and Herrera threw late to second.

But Whit Merrifield just jogged over and lobbed the ball to first baseman Lucas Duda for the final out of the inning. Renteria then put Nicky Delmonico in left and moved Leury Garcia to shortstop before the start of the seventh.

“It’s like we tell these guys: Don’t assume anything,” Renteria said. “Just go until they ultimately make the call. We’ll let the opposing team make the review call. It didn’t look very good having him standing at the plate and having the ball go around the diamond.”

Anderson said he was surprised by Renteria’s decision to pull him out of the game.

“But he’s the manager. It’s his call,” Anderson said. “I can’t do nothing but respect his decision (and) come tomorrow and be ready to play.”

ABOUT THAT DEADLINE

The White Sox acquired minor league left-hander Hunter Schryver from Tampa Bay for $1 million in international signing bonus pool money. Schryver, a seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft out of Villanova University, was assigned to Class A Winston-Salem.

The Royals did not make a trade in the final hours before the non-waiver deadline.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Royals: OF Brian Goodwin was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left groin strain. He got hurt running the bases on Saturday night against the Yankees. … INF Cheslor Cuthbert, who is out with a lower back strain, was transferred to the 60-day DL.

White Sox: OF Luis Robert, one of Chicago’s top prospects, was slated to begin a rehab assignment with the Arizona League White Sox. Robert had been sidelined by a left thumb injury.

UP NEXT

Jakob Junis (5-11, 5.06 ERA) and Dylan Covey (4-6, 5.40 ERA) pitch Wednesday night in a matchup of struggling right-handers. Junis is 0-8 with a 6.98 ERA in his last nine starts for Kansas City. Covey has one win and an 8.73 ERA over his last seven starts.

— Associated Press —

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 —