Aaron Judge blasts 2 HRs, needs 2 to tie Maris' AL record

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Aaron Judge hit his 58th and 59th home runs of the season to move within two of Roger Maris’ American League record with 16 games remaining and lead the New York Yankees over the Milwaukee Brewers 12-8 on Sunday. Judge added a two-run double in the ninth as part of a four-hit day for New York, which hit five homers and avoided a three-game sweep. The Yankees opened a 5 1/2-game lead over second-place Toronto in the AL East. Judge’s 11th multihomer game tied the season record set by Detroit’s Hank Greenberg 1938 and matched by the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in 1998. Seeking a Triple Crown, Judge leads the major leagues in homers and with 127 RBIs. His .3162 batting average is just behind AL leader Luis Arraez of Minnesota at .317 and Boston’s Xander Bogaerts at .3164. Milwaukee dropped two games behind San Diego, which played later Sunday, for the third and last NL wild card. METS 7, PIRATES 3 NEW YORK (AP) – Jacob deGrom struck out 13 batters – the most ever for a Mets pitcher who threw five or fewer innings – but didn’t factor into the decision. The NL East leaders beat Pittsburgh to complete a four-game sweep. The Mets scored four in the eighth to break the tie. Terrance Gore pinch-ran in place of Tomas Nido, who hit a single off Robert Stephenson (2-2). Gore stole second after three throws to first by Manny Bañuelos, took third when catcher Jason Delay’s throw sailed into centerfield and scored on Brandon Nimmo’s bloop single. Daniel Vogelbach added a one-out, two-RBI single and Eduardo Escobar had a run-scoring groundout. Joely Rodríguez (1-4) struck out a career-high five in two perfect innings. The Mets stranded 12 runners in the first seven innings, but their pitchers combined to strike out 20 batters, tying the big league record for a nine-inning game. ASTROS 11, ATHLETICS 2 HOUSTON (AP) – Framber Valdez set an MLB record with his 25th straight quality start, and Yordan Alvarez and Martin Maldonado had four RBIs each to help Houston build an early lead in a rout of Oakland. Alvarez drove in three runs with a double in Houston’s five-run third inning and padded the lead with an RBI double the sixth inning. He extended his hitting streak to a season-high nine games, piling up nine hits, four home runs and nine RBIs in the series, in which Houston took three of four. Valdez (16-5) allowed four hits and two runs with seven strikeouts in six innings to pass Jacob deGrom (24 in 2018) for the most consecutive quality starts in a single season in MLB history. Maldonado tied a career-high with his first four-hit game since 2015 and scored four times for the first time in his 12-year career. The Astros jumped on rookie Ken Waldichuk (0-2) early as he was tagged for five hits and five runs in 2 2/3 innings in his fifth career start. MARLINS 3, NATIONALS 1 WASHINGTON (AP) – Sandy Alcantara pitched his major league-leading fifth complete game, a seven-hitter that led Miami over Washington to avoid a series sweep. Alcantara (13-8) struck out seven and walked one, throwing 104 pitches. His 2.37 ERA is second in the National League to the 2.27 of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Julio Urías, and Alcantara leads the major leagues with 212 2/3 innings. Garrett Cooper hit a sixth-inning, opposite-field homer to left-center for Miami, which had lost seven of nine. Luis García hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth for the Nationals, and Aníbal Sánchez (2-6) allowed two runs in six innings while striking out three. DODGERS 4, GIANTS 3, 10 INNINGS SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Mookie Betts had an RBI double in the 10th inning, Max Muncy drew a bases-loaded walk and Los Angeles held on to beat San Francisco.