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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Aaron Judge celebrated his return to the Sacramento area by hitting two home runs Saturday in a losing effort for the New York Yankees against the Athletics to extend his major league leading total to 14.

Judge is playing in the Sacramento area for the first time since college in New York’s first visit to the A’s temporary home near California’s capital.

Judge was born in Sacramento and grew up not far away in Linden and had many friends and family in the crowd of 12,113 at the minor league park that is hosting the A’s.

“It just felt like being home,” Judge said after the Yankees’ win Friday night. “Any time we play the A’s, that’s always something that’s familiar to me and close to home to me. It was special.”

After going 1-for-4 with a walk and two near homers in the series opener, Judge granted A’s owner John Fisher his wish Saturday in an 11-7 victory for the home team.

He led off the fourth inning with a homer off JP Sears and then connected again to lead off the sixth against Justin Sterner to the delight of the Yankees fans in attendance, many of whom chanted “MVP! MVP!”

“Not surprising,” Yankees starter Carlos Rodon said. “Once again putting on great swings like he always does. Really good player.”

The second homer gave Judge 14 on the season and gave him 41 career multihomer games — fourth most in Yankees history.

Judge leads the majors in batting average (.396), on-base percentage (.486), slugging percentage (.772) homers and RBIs (37).

When the A’s announced their plans last season to play in this minor league park, Fisher said he was excited to see what players like Judge could do in a stadium known for offense.

“We’re excited to be here for the next three years playing in this beautiful ballpark but also being able to watch some of the best players in baseball, whether they be Athletics players or Aaron Judge and others launch home runs out of this very intimate, the most intimate ballpark in all of Major League Baseball,” he said.

The ball carried well for everyone with the teams combining for six homers — including a go-ahead, three-run shot by Shea Langeliers for the A’s that pitcher Fernando Cruz was shocked carried over the wall.

Cruz said he went to back up home plate, assuming it would be a potential sacrifice fly only to see the ball carry out.

“It’s the same for all of us,” Cruz said. “It’s the same for the other team, the same for me, the same for my other teammates. Just have to come back tomorrow and do the same thing, pitch and locate a little better.”

Games at this stadium that had previously been solely used in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League have had a combined 2.75 home runs per game — up more than 40% from the rate of homers hit last season at the Oakland Coliseum.

“I’m sure as the summer builds up and the heat builds up, the PCL is known for that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about the way the ball carries. “I’d be speaking out of turn if I said I knew how this place is going to play throughout. Today was a little different throughout.”

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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