KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Aaron Judge crushed a 469-foot home run that nearly left Kauffman Stadium in the first inning of the New York Yankees‘ 10-2 win over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night, continuing his season-long ravaging of pitchers across baseball.

The home run, Judge’s 24th, was the third longest in the majors this season behind Mike Trout‘s (484 feet) and Logan O’Hoppe (470 feet).

The two-run homer raised Judge’s batting average to .398 and his OPS to 1.279 — 264 points higher than the second best in baseball, Shohei Ohtani.

117.9 MPH
469 FEET

AARON JUDGE OBLITERATES THIS BASEBALL! pic.twitter.com/XOYcLnExqg

— MLB (@MLB) June 10, 2025

Judge took a 2-0 fastball from rookie left-hander Noah Cameron, who had not given up more than one run in any of his previous five major league starts, and yanked it down the line, toward the Royals Hall of Fame that abuts the left-field foul pole.

The ball landed just shy of the Hall of Fame’s roof and registered as the sixth-farthest homer at the stadium in the decade since MLB’s ball-tracking system began. It was the seventh-longest regular-season homer in Judge’s career, with his best a 496-foot shot to left-center field at Yankee Stadium off Marcus Stroman as a rookie in 2017.

Judge also singled in a run as part of New York’s five-run sixth inning, giving him three RBIs on the night.

Judge’s season-long heater continued after he hit two home runs Sunday in a loss to the Boston Red Sox. His batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage all lead major league hitters, while he ranks second in home runs behind Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh and leads the American League in RBIs.

SAN DIEGO — Shohei Ohtani took a significant step in his pitching progression early Tuesday afternoon, firing 44 pitches over the course of three simulated innings from Petco Park. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts later said there is a “north of zero” chance Ohtani joins the team’s rotation before the All-Star break.

At this point, at least, Ohtani seems more likely to return as a pitcher in July as opposed to August, the latter of which previously seemed like the more logical target. The biggest reason, outside of how impressed Dodgers officials have been with Ohtani’s command despite a near two-year hiatus from pitching: The extra roster spot afforded to them.

Ohtani carries a “two-way player” designation, which, according to a rule established by Major League Baseball in 2019, allows him to pitch without counting toward a team’s 13-pitcher limit. As the 14th pitcher, the Dodgers are afforded the luxury of bringing Ohtani back before he is fully stretched out like a traditional starter. In other words, they can initially have Ohtani make two- to three-inning starts and have another pitcher lined up behind him to serve as essentially a piggyback starter.

“It certainly doesn’t have to be a full buildup,” Roberts said, “because anything that he can give us is certainly additive.”

Roberts added, though, that Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the second repair of Ohtani’s ulnar collateral ligament in September 2023, and the Dodgers’ athletic training staff will continue to set the pace of his recovery. The team will continue to adjust accordingly — like it did by pushing Ohtani’s latest session back a day because he fouled a ball off his foot in St. Louis on Sunday.

An added layer is the Dodgers’ pitching situation. Fourteen of them are currently on the injured list, including four starters — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki and, more recently, Tony Gonsolin. Snell and Glasnow each threw a bullpen session Tuesday, but both still need to build back up.

“It’s tempting,” Roberts said of bringing Ohtani back to the rotation sooner. “I’m sure Shohei is tempted to just rip the Band-Aid off for a big league game. But I think we’ve done a good job of just being patient. And truth be told, I don’t know if anyone knows the right time to get him in a big league game. But we’re still being very careful.”

Ohtani began his pitching progression last year, while becoming the first full-time designated hitter to win an MVP, then basically shut it down for the postseason.

The Dodgers’ hopes of having Ohtani restart his throwing progression relatively early in the winter were scrapped when he tore a labrum in his left shoulder during Game 2 of the World Series, requiring offseason surgery. Spring training essentially qualified as Ohtani’s offseason throwing program. He then shut it down leading up to the March 18 opener in Japan and picked it back up when the Dodgers returned to the United States.

Ohtani faced hitters for the first time at Citi Field on May 25, throwing 22 pitches. Six days later, he threw 29. Ten days after that, he increased his output to 44. Ohtani struck out six batters, issued a walk and allowed a ground ball up the middle that would have probably gone for a single while facing a couple of Dodgers minor leaguers. Ohtani, 30, also went through game-specific elements like pitching from the stretch, incorporating a slide step and using the pitch clock. Roberts said his fastball “had life” and that his sweeper was “really good.”

Ohtani will continue to take part in simulated games every week or so, with a light bullpen session in between, until the Dodgers determine he is ready to join their rotation.

Said Roberts: “I’m just anxious for the next one.”

BOSTON — Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, the top-rated prospect in all of baseball, hit a two-run double for his first career base hit Tuesday night, helping Boston win 3-1 over the Tampa Bay Rays.

One night after his MLB debut, when he went hitless and committed an error in an 11-inning loss, Anthony went 1-for-4 and gave Boston a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a sharp double to left. He also made a sliding catch in right field.

The 21-year-old second-round draft pick went viral over the weekend when he hit a 497-foot grand slam in Triple-A Worcester. He batted .288 with 10 homers and 29 RBI in 58 games for the WooSox this season.

Anthony’s call-up on Monday was so sudden his parents didn’t have time to make the trip from Florida, but they were at Fenway Park on Tuesday night to see his second game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.