Yanks crank out 5 homers in win over Royals

KANSAS CITY -- After a power outage on Friday, the Yankees went right back to their long-ball ways one night later.
In an 8-3 victory over the Royals, New York hit five homers and put itself in position to capture an eighth consecutive series if the Yanks can find a way to win Sunday's rubber game at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals had limited the Yankees to eight singles in the series opener, but New York was anything but quiet against starter Danny Duffy and the Royals' relief corps. The big blow was a go-ahead three-run homer by Gleyber Torres that put the Yanks up 5-2 in the fourth. Torres, who had a rough night defensively in the series opener, atoned in a big way.
"All-in-all, a good bounce-back night for us," manager Aaron Boone said. "[Gleyber] had a tough night [on Friday], but he doesn't flinch. He plays the game with a lot of confidence and is really good at it. So, I don't worry about him at all."

The homer binge started with Aaron Hicks' second inside-the-park homer this season and then came Torres' three-run shot. The Yankees tacked on late with two homers from Gary Sanchez and another by Giancarlo Stanton on what was the 500th extra-base hit of his career.
Sanchez, who now has 10 multi-homer games, including three this season, leads the club with 12 homers.
"The first few weeks, [Sanchez] didn't walk," Boone said. "What I'm seeing now is the patience. Then you get some mistakes, and Gary hits mistakes out of the park."
The Yankees (29-13) are 20-4 since April 21. Starter Luis Severino worked six innings, allowing eight hits and three runs on 77 pitches. The bullpen was up to the task as Chad Green, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman logged scoreless innings.
SOUND SMART
With seven wins, Severino is well ahead of last year's pace. He didn't record his seventh victory of 2017 until July 26 en route to finishing third in the American League Cy Young Award voting.
HE SAID IT
"Last time, he had the headfirst slide at home. This time, he could have almost walked home." -- Boone, talking about Hicks' two inside-the-park homers this year
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
The Royals challenged an out call at the plate in the fifth inning when Mike Moustakas attempted to score from first on Salvador Perez's double to left-center. Moustakas was called out on shortstop Ronald Torreyes' relay throw home and the call was ruled to stand.

In the seventh, the Yankees challenged a safe call at first on Soler's bouncer deep behind third. After review, it was determined that Miguel Andújar's one-hop throw was in time and the call was overturned.

UP NEXT
Yankees right-hander Sonny Gray (2-3, 6.39 ERA) takes the mound on eight days' rest at 2:15 p.m. ET on Sunday for the series finale against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The long period between starts resulted due to off-days and postponements in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. Gray has faced Kansas City four times in his career and has a 2.77 ERA over 26 innings. The Royals will counter with left-hander Eric Skoglund, who worked a career-high 7 2/3 innings in a 2-1 loss to the Rays on Monday.